The DFB Pokal: This season's most unpredictable competition...

If you want to find the most unpredictable competition in which no big team is safe from a shocking exit then look no further than this year’s DFB Pokal. There have been more scalps taken so far than in a chapter of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. 

There are just eight teams left with the draw for the quarter-finals scheduled for Sunday. Of those eight teams only four are from the Bundesliga: RB Leipzig, SC Freiburg, VfL Bochum, and Union Berlin. The 2. Bundesliga makes up the other five with league-leaders St. Pauli, their arch-rivals Hamburger SV, Hannover 96, and Karlsruher SC.

So, how did we get to a last-eight without the likes of Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, or Bayer Leverkusen?

Big teams were already tumbling in the first round. While Bayern Munich were beating Bremer SV 12-0, the likes of Babelsberg 03 (of the fourth tier) were eliminating newly-promoted Greuther Fürth of the Bundesliga. They weren’t alone, third-tier side Waldhof Mannheim won 2-0 over the much more illustrious Eintracht Frankfurt.

©Getty /

The round of 16 is where the Bundesliga teams started dropping like flies. Penalties sent FC Köln out at home to the 2. Bundesliga’s Hamburger SV, Hannover comfortably kicked Mönchengladbach out 3-0, and St Pauli stunned Borussia Dortmund 2-1 despite Erling Haaland’s best efforts.

Of the eight remaining teams, only three have ever won the cup before: Hamburger (three times – most recently in 1987), Hannover (once in 1992), and Karlsruher (two consecutive wins in 1955 and 1956).

It presents a golden chance for RB Leipzig – now the bookies’ favourites – to win the first time in their history. They’ve come close before. In 2019, Ralph Rangnick’s Leipzig made the final but lost 3-0 to Bayern Munich and it was a similar story last year when Julian Nagelsmann (now the Bayern manager) saw his Leipzig lose 4-1 to Borussia Dortmund.

Those two are gone now so there won’t be any excuses for current Leipzig coach Domenico Tedesco. However, in this tournament, no one can predict what will happen next.

Hannover 96 completely dominating Borussia Mönchengladbach!

Another Bundesliga team might be out of the Pokal 😱 pic.twitter.com/NmRcP8IlvB

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 19, 2022