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Bayern Munich have drawn Hertha Berlin in the round of 16 of the DFB-Pokal. The matches for the round of 16 will take place on February 5th and 6th, and Bayern’s clash with Berlin will be played at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. The tie comes in the middle of a packed fixtures list to start off the Rückrunde for Bayern, and they really struggled on their visit to the Olympiastadion earlier this season, as Pál Dárdai’s men beat the reigning champions 2-0.
Just after the draw took place, Dárdai also took to Twitter to let everyone know how much he’s looking forward to the clash:
Irgendeiner muss ja in jeder Runde gegen die Bayern spielen. Und wir sind sehr froh über ein volles Olympiastadion. #BSCFCB #DFBPokal #hahohe
— Pál Dárdai (@paldardai) November 4, 2018
“Someone has to play against Bayern in every round. And we are very happy about a full Olympic Stadium.”
Three of the other ties in the next round of he competition feature all-Bundesliga contests, and promise to be thoroughly entertaining encounters.
Here’s how the rest of the match-ups look for the round of 16:
A complete summary of tonight's draw
— The DFB-Pokal (@DFBPokal_EN) November 4, 2018
The games will take place between the 5th and 6th of February #DFBPokal #Berlin2019 pic.twitter.com/nlVybWPOoA
How they got here
Bayern:
We should be sitting here at this stage of the competition saying that Bayern walked through the park against two separate Regionalliga sides, but that’s far from the truth. Both FC Drochtersen/Assel an SV Rödinghausen proved far more troublesome than Bayern may have been anticipating, and narrow victories saw Bayern just barely progress. The 1-0 victory over Drochtersen/Assel required a late, 81st minute winner from Robert Lewandowski after the Regionalliga side had showed incredible discipline in defense and even registered a few chances on Bayern’s goal.
In Bayern’s 2-1 over Rödinghausen, an early surge from the defending Bundesliga champions proved to be the difference-maker as Sandro Wagner’s finish and Thomas Müller’s penalty were enough to clinch a nervy victory on a rainy night in Osnabruck. To be fair, Bayern had far more chances than the home side, including a missed Renato Sanches penalty, but Rödinghausen’s goal just four minutes into the second half set the stage for a cagey ending as Bayern were caught on their heels on a handful of occasions when Rödinghausen countered.
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Berlin:
Like Bayern, Hertha Berlin had hard work against two non-Bundesliga sides in the first two rounds, though the caliber of their opponents was much higher in Eintracht Braunschweig and Darmstadt. It took a late goal from Vedad Ibišević in the 83rd for Berlin to come away from Braunschweig victorious, after Eintracht had leveled the match at 1-1 in the 81st minute, cancelling out Marvin Plattenhardt’s sensational volleyed goal from the first half. In Darmstadt, Berlin had the better share of chances and despite Darmstadt holding them to 0 goals in the first half, goals from Ibišević and Maximilian Mittelstadt within the last half hour gave Hertha the well-deserved 2-0 win.
Plattenhardt’s volley against Braunschweig was a thing of beauty:
In the previous round of the #DFBPokal, Marvin #Plattenhardt scored this absolute belter #hahohe pic.twitter.com/nnPS3PmSvy
— Hertha Berlin (@HerthaBSC_EN) October 29, 2018