2018–19 DFB-Pokal

The 2018–19 DFB-Pokal was the 76th season of the annual German football cup competition. Sixty-four teams participated in the competition, including all teams from the previous year's Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. The competition began on 17 August 2018 with the first of six rounds and ended on 25 May 2019 with the final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, a nominally neutral venue, which has hosted the final since 1985. The DFB-Pokal is considered the second-most important club title in German football after the Bundesliga championship. The DFB-Pokal is run by the German Football Association (DFB).

The defending champions were Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt, after they defeated Bayern Munich 3–1 in the previous final. Frankfurt were knocked out of the competition in the first round by fourth-division side SSV Ulm, losing 1–2.

Bayern Munich won the final 3–0 against RB Leipzig for their 19th title. With the win, Bayern completed their 12th domestic double, and therefore played away to 2018–19 Bundesliga runners-up Borussia Dortmund in the 2019 DFL-Supercup in August 2019. Because Bayern qualified for the Champions League through the Bundesliga, the sixth-place team in the Bundesliga, VfL Wolfsburg, earned qualification for the group stage of the 2019–20 edition of the UEFA Europa League, and the league's third second round spot went to the team in seventh, Eintracht Frankfurt.

Participating clubs
The following 64 teams qualified for the competition:

Participation
The DFB-Pokal began with a round of 64 teams. The 36 teams of the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga, along with the top four finishers of the 3. Liga, automatically qualified for the tournament. Of the remaining slots, 21 were given to the cup winners of the regional football associations, the Verbandspokal. The three remaining slots were given to the three regional associations with the most men's teams, which at the time were Bavaria, Lower Saxony, and Westphalia. The runners-up of the Lower Saxony Cup were given the slot, along with the best-placed amateur team of the Regionalliga Bayern. For Westphalia, the winners of a play-off between the best-placed team of the Regionalliga West and Oberliga Westfalen also qualified. As every team was entitled to participate in local tournaments which qualified for the association cups, every team could in principle compete in the DFB-Pokal. Reserve teams and combined football sections were not permitted to enter, along with no two teams of the same association or corporation.

Draw
The draws for the different rounds were conducted as following:

For the first round, the participating teams were split into two pots of 32 teams each. The first pot contained all teams which qualified through their regional cup competitions, the best four teams of the 3. Liga, and the bottom four teams of the 2. Bundesliga. Every team from this pot was drawn to a team from the second pot, which contained all remaining professional teams (all the teams of the Bundesliga and the remaining fourteen 2. Bundesliga teams). The teams from the first pot were set as the home team in the process.

The two-pot scenario was also applied for the second round, with the remaining 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) in the first pot and the remaining Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga teams in the other pot. Once again, the 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) served as hosts. This time the pots did not have to be of equal size though, depending on the results of the first round. Theoretically, it was even possible that there could be only one pot, if all of the teams from one of the pots from the first round had beat all the others in the second pot. Once one pot was empty, the remaining pairings were drawn from the other pot with the first-drawn team for a match serving as hosts.

For the remaining rounds, the draw was conducted from just one pot. Any remaining 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) were the home team if drawn against a professional team. In every other case, the first-drawn team served as hosts.

Match rules
Teams met in one game per round. Matches took place for 90 minutes, with two halves of 45 minutes each. If still tied after regulation, 30 minutes of extra time were played, consisting of two periods of 15 minutes each. If the score was still level after this, the match was decided by a penalty shoot-out. A coin toss would decide who took the first penalty. A total of seven players were allowed to be listed on the substitute bench, with up to three substitutions being allowed during regulation. After approval by the IFAB in 2016, the use of a fourth substitute was allowed in extra time as part of a pilot project. From the quarter-finals onward, a video assistant referee was appointed for all DFB-Pokal matches. Though technically possible, VAR was not used for home matches of Bundesliga clubs prior to the quarter-finals in order to provide a uniform approach to all matches.

Suspensions
If a player received five yellow cards in the competition, he was then suspended from the next cup match. Similarly, receiving a second yellow card suspended a player from the next cup match. If a player received a direct red card, they were suspended a minimum of one match, but the German Football Association reserved the right to increase the suspension.

Champion qualification
The winners of the DFB-Pokal earned automatic qualification for the group stage of next year's edition of the UEFA Europa League. As winners Bayern Munich had already qualified for the UEFA Champions League by winning the Bundesliga, the spot went to the team in sixth place, VfL Wolfsburg, and the league's second qualifying round spot went to the team in seventh place, Eintracht Frankfurt. As Bayern won both the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal, completing a double, the runners-up of the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund, hosted the 2019 DFL-Supercup at the start of the next season.

Schedule


All draws were held at the German Football Museum in Dortmund, on a Sunday evening at 18:00 after each round (unless noted otherwise). The draws were televised on ARD's Sportschau, broadcast on Das Erste. From the quarter-finals onwards, the draw for the DFB-Pokal der Frauen also generally took place at the same time.

The rounds of the 2018–19 competition were scheduled as follows:

Matches
A total of sixty-three matches took place, starting with the first round on 17 August 2018 and culminating with the final on 25 May 2019 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.

Times up to 27 October 2018 and from 31 March 2019 are CEST (UTC+2). Times from 28 October 2018 to 30 March 2019 are CET (UTC+1).

First round
The draw for the first round was held on 8 June 2018 at 22:00, with Palina Rojinski drawing the matches. The thirty-two matches took place from 17 to 20 August 2018.

Second round
The draw for the second round was held on 26 August 2018 at 18:00, with Gina Lückenkemper drawing the matches. The sixteen matches took place from 30 to 31 October 2018.

Round of 16
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 4 November 2018 at 18:00, with Serdal Celebi drawing the matches. The eight matches took place from 5 to 6 February 2019.

Quarter-finals
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 10 February 2019 at 18:15, with Fabian Böhm drawing the matches. The four matches took place from 2 to 3 April 2019.

Semi-finals
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 7 April 2019 at 18:00, with Lena Goeßling drawing the matches. The two matches took place on 23 and 24 April 2019.

Final
The final took place on 25 May 2019 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.

Bracket
The following is the bracket which the DFB-Pokal resembled. Numbers in parentheses next to the match score represent the results of a penalty shoot-out.

Top goalscorers
The following were the top scorers of the DFB-Pokal, sorted first by number of goals, and then alphabetically if necessary. Goals scored in penalty shoot-outs are not included.

Broadcasting rights
In Germany, all matches and a simulcast (Konferenz) channel were broadcast live on pay TV via Sky Sport. Selected matches from the first round to the quarter-finals, along with highlights from all matches, were broadcast on free TV by Das Erste's Sportschau live from ARD. Both semi-final matches and the final were broadcast by both Das Erste and Sky Sport.

The following matches were broadcast live on ARD: