This are only two games left until the final in Berlin. There were 64 teams to begin with and now we are left with eight still in the running for the 2015/2016 DFB Cup. The quarterfinals will take place today and Wednesday. DFB.de have rounded up all the essential facts ahead of the four big games.
The Teams: There are six Bundesliga sides and two second tier sides in the quarter finals of this year’s DFB Cup. The ties between the Bundesliga sides are Werder Bremen vs. Bayer 04 Leverkusen and VfB Stuttgart vs. Borussia Dortmund. The other matches include home ties for both lower league sides, as Heidenheim host Hertha and Bochum face off against cup-winning record holders Bayern Munich.
Leverkusen’s Werder curse: Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen have met six times in the DFB Cup, although Werder Bremen have won every time. The last time these teams met is remembered fondly by Werder fans, as it was the 2009 final, where Bremen won 1-0 to secure their sixth DFB Cup win. Mesut Özil scored the golden goal, before moving to Spain with Real Madrid a year after.
Kick-off: The matches will be played today and Wednesday. Both days there will be a game starting at 19:00 CET and then another at 20:30 CET.
Advantage Bochum: Bochum have been in a goalscoring mood in the competition so far, having already scored eight goals in the past three rounds. They put five past Salmrohr, one past Kaiserslatern, then two more past 1860 Munich. In doing so they proved that their attack is even more dangerous in the cup this year than the attack of cup-winning record holders Bayern Munich, who have recorded two 3-1 victories against Nöttingen and Wolfsburg and then a 1-0 victory over Darmstadt, giving them a lesser total of seven goals.
Draw: The four quarterfinal matches haven’t been played yet, but the semi-finals are looming. The semi-final matches are scheduled for Tuesday 19th April and Wednesday 20th April. The semi-final draw will take place after the conclusion of Bochum vs. Bayern. The matches will be drawn by European Cup winner and the Germany handball team's goalkeeper Andreas Wolff. The head of the draw will be DFB Vice-president Peter Frymuth.
Lots of BVB in VfB: Stuttgart have three former Dortmund players in their ranks, with Mitchell Langerak, Daniel Ginczeck and since January, Kevin Großkreutz all having played at BVB earlier in their careers. Until summer 2015 Moritz Leitner was on loan at Stuttgart but moved back to Dortmund at the start of the current campaign. It remains to be seen how much the Dortmund influence will help Stuttgart in the next round of the DFB-Cup. There are good signs for Stuttgart, especially in regard to the following statistics. So far the two teams have met four times in the cup, with each team winning two games, although neither team has managed a win away from home in these four meetings. Hosts Stuttgart will be hoping that it can only be a good omen that they are playing at home at the Mercedes-Benz-Arena.