Through to the round of 16!

Hertha BSC beat SV Darmstadt 98 2-0 on Saturday evening (30/10/18) thanks to two goals from super-subs Vedad Ibisevic and Maxi Mittelstädt and booked a place in the round of 16 of the DFB-Pokal.

Line-up

Pal Dárdai made five changes to his starting XI with Thomas Kraft, Vladimir Darida, Marvin Plattenhardt, Javairo Dilrosun and Davie Selke coming in for Rune Jarstein, Per Skjelbred, Maximilian Mittelstädt, Fabian Lustenberger and Vedad Ibisevic. The hosts SV Darmstadt 98 made two changes to their line-up from the weekend with Yannick Stark and Sebastian Hertner coming in for Marvin Mehlem and Joevin Jones.

Match Summary

The game was delayed by 15 minutes as the Hertha BSC team bus was caught up in traffic on the way to the stadium. The first chance of the game fell to Davie Selke in the eight minute as the German striker took a shot from just inside the area but dragged his shot just wide of the post. The first real chance for the home side fell to Serdar Dursun as he saw his effort also go just wide of the post. Otherwise, chances were scarce in the first half but just before the whistle blew, Salomon Kalou, who had scored a brace at the weekend against Dortmund, had two chances to open the scoring but had both his efforts saved by the Darmstadt keeper.

Shortly after the second half commenced, Ondrej Duda had the ball in the back of the net after some good work down the right flank from Kalou. However, the goal was disallowed as Davie Selke was deemed to have fouled a defender in the build-up to the goal. Six minutes later, Ondrej Duda weaved through a couple defenders before shooting at goal but had his effort well saved. In the 64th minute, Vedad Ibisevic came on for Davie Selke and within seconds had scored with his first touch of the game after Ondrej Duda’s effort had been parried towards him. Although the 2. Bundesliga team were 1-0 down, they did not give up and continued to play well but were unable to create anything substantial. In the last moments of the game, substitute Maxi Mittelstädt slammed the ball into the roof of the net after a good counterattack from the away side to finish of the game and make it 2-0.

Conclusion and Outlook

Thanks to this victory, Hertha BSC will be in the ballot for the round of 16 of the DFB-Pokal. The draw will be done on Sunday (4/11/18, 18:00 CET) in Dortmund and the game will take place next February. Hertha will host RB Leipzig on Saturday (3/11/18, 18:30 CET) on matchday 10.