Second tier sides St Pauli and Fortuna Dusseldorf will be fighting for a place in the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal when they meet on Tuesday evening.
St Pauli have only ever made it to the last four of Germany's domestic cup once in their entire history, while two-time winners Dusseldorf have not reached that stage since the 1995-96 campaign.
Match preview
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St Pauli's solitary semi-final appearance in the DFB-Pokal came in the 2005-06 season, when their run came to an end with a 3-0 defeat against the eventual champions Bayern Munich. They have benefitted from a favourable draw to reach the quarter-final stage this time around, with Dusseldorf set to be their fourth successive opponent competing outside of the Bundesliga.
St Pauli are aiming to return to the Bundesliga for the first time since being relegated in the 2010-11 season, when they finished bottom with 29 points. That was the second successive time that they endured an instant return to the second tier by finishing bottom, having suffered the same fate nine seasons prior.
The Neighbourhood Kickers moved four points clear at the top of the Bundesliga 2 table by beating Dusseldorf 2-1 away from home on Saturday, though, with Marcel Hartel's early brace proving enough to hand the visitors all three points. As such, Fabian Hurzeler and his players will be dreaming of competing at the elite level later this year.
However, they will know that they have plenty of work left to do in order to make that dream a reality, especially with their fierce local rivals Hamburger SV among the chasing pack of teams behind them. Another victory against Dusseldorf on Tuesday would certainly set pulses racing at Millerntor-Stadion, especially with only three teams from the Bundesliga remaining in the cup.
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Dusseldorf, of course, have more pedigree in this competition than their forthcoming opponents, having lifted the DFB-Pokal trophy in successive seasons in 1978-79 and 1979-80. The first of those triumphs was sixth time lucky for Fortunen, who had previously suffered five defeats in the final.
Like St Pauli, Dusseldorf have avoided facing any teams competing in the Bundesliga during their run to the quarter-finals. They are also pushing for a return to the Bundesliga, but their defeat to St Pauli at Merkur Spiel-Arena on Saturday left them eight points behind the league leaders.
Dusseldorf have been at the top level more recently, finishing 10th in the 2018-19 season before suffering an agonising relegation in the following campaign. They narrowly missed out on competing in the promotion playoffs when finishing fourth last time out, although they were a considerable distance behind third-placed Hamburg in the end.
Former Hamburg boss Daniel Thioune has remained in charge of Dusseldorf since being appointed in February 2022, winning almost half (36) of his 73 matches in charge. If he can take that win rate back above 50% on Tuesday evening, Thioune and his players will be dreaming of an unlikely cup triumph.
Team News
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St Pauli will remain without Jackson Irvine and Connor Metcalfe, who are both competing for Australia at the Asia Cup. Scott Banks is ruled out for the rest of the season due to a serious ACL injury.
Having defeated Dusseldorf at the weekend, Hurzeler will only make changes if he wishes to prioritise their promotion push, or hand any fringe players an opportunity to impress him. With a crucial home game against second-placed Greuther Furth to come on Saturday, the likes of Carlo Boukhalfa and Lars Ritzka could be called upon.
Dusseldorf, meanwhile, are likely to travel without Tim Oberdorf, Shinta Appelkamp, Jamil Siebert and Marcel Sobottka due to injury. Mathias Zimmermann and Dennis Gorka missed their side's recent defeat to St Pauli due to illness and may not be risked once again.
Takashi Uchino and Felix Klaus could come into the visitors' starting XI after being used from the bench at the weekend, while former Norwich City winger Christos Tzolis will almost certainly start after scoring late on in that loss.
St Pauli possible starting lineup:
Vasilj; Wahl, Smith, Mets; Saliakas, Boukhalfa, Hartel, Ritzka; Amenyido, Saad; Eggestein
Fortuna Dusseldorf possible starting lineup:
Kastenmeier; Uchino, Hoffmann, De Wijs, Gavory; Klaus, Tanaka, Engelhardt, Johannesson, Tzolis; Vermeij
We say: St Pauli 2-1 Fortuna Dusseldorf
Having beaten Dusseldorf in the league away from home on Saturday, St Pauli will sense an amazing opportunity to reach only their second ever DFB-Pokal semi-final. However, the two-time champions are unlikely to make things easy for them.
We expect St Pauli to continue their impressive season so far by narrowly dispatching Dusseldorf once again, though, with the prospect of facing another team from outside of the Bundesliga in the final four a distinct possibility.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Brett Curtis
