M★RZEC - Man[ager] with a Mission

DFB Pokal, Round 2 | September 26th, 2023

Yildirim does it again; Another Hat-Trick!
BIELEFELD BEAT BREMEN! (3:2)

In contrast to their struggling form in the league, DSC Arminia Bielefeld are flying high in the German Cup. In the Round 2 of the DFB-Pokal, the third tier team eliminated Bundesliga outfit Werder Bremen. Aygün Yildirim repeated his hat-trick again of the previous round!

It was a classic cup tie. Both teams went in with a do-or -die spirit. Home team boss Daniel Marzec fielded a classic 4-3-3 tactic with a false 9 striker: Aygün Yilidirim. The three Bielefeld midfielders managed to isolate the centre midfield of Bremen, thereby neutralizing Jens Stage and Naby Keïta for most of the game. Any danger from Bremen had to come over the flanks.

When out of possession, Bremen had trouble defending the front three of Bielefeld, as wingers Noah Bazee, Kevin Csoboth and the false striker Yilidirim were swapping positions all the time. Arminia cut through a handful of times, with Yildirim scoring three times out of such occasions. And after a hat-trick in round 1 against Osnabrück, Yildirim repeated his impressive feat yet again scoring three times against a Bundesliga team.

'We needed this!', manager Marzec said as he drew a sigh of relief. 'We took a good look in the mirror and found out that we were swapping our system aound too much. We weren't playing bad, but this team with all its new players needed an anchor, more stability - so, the staff and players decided to go back to basics: a standard 4-3-3 formation, but with one surprise; the mobile false-9 striker. And just look...: Suddenly, we defeated a Bundesliga side!'

Whether this could be a turning point is hard to say for the Arminia-manager: 'Before the game, I said the cup stands apart from the league. Sure, a win can give you boost. But over the long term, I think stability will bring us more: we need to stick to the route we've set out in the run up to this game: these tactics, this kind of motivation and fighting spirit and then see where we stand by the end of the calendar year.'

Arminia Bielefeld, together with Erzgebirge Aue, are the last of the 3.Liga teams still in the DFB-Pokal tournament. In the 1/8 final (round of 16), Arminia Bielefeld will visit Kaiserslautern and their infamous Fritz-Walter-Stadion on The Betzenberg. The game is set for November 1st.