Leverkusen starts with a landslide victory, Union and Magdeburg also move in!

Leverkusen starts with a landslide victory, Union and Magdeburg also move in!

An exciting day in the DFB Cup, which began on August 17, 2025, featured exciting games and some surprising twists. Bayer Leverkusen celebrated a memorable competitive debut under new coach Erik ten Hag by defeating SG Sonnenhof Großaspach 4-0. But the course of the game was marked by a violent thunderstorm that had to interrupt the game for almost 40 minutes. Particularly memorable was the first goal scored by striker Patrik Schick in the 32nd minute.

The weather was going crazy with rain, hail, thunder and squalls. Despite having more possession, Leverkusen was unable to dominate the game throughout. Things became even more difficult for the Großaspach team in the second half: Captain Volkan Celiktas received a yellow-red card in the 66th minute, and Mert Tasdelen followed him shortly afterwards with a red card in the 82nd minute. Other legendary goals for Leverkusen came from Arthur (74th minute), Christian Kofane (84th minute) and a penalty from Alejandro Grimaldo (87th minute).

Union Berlin and Magdeburg show strength

Meanwhile, 1. FC Union Berlin and 1. FC Magdeburg also fought exciting duels. Union Berlin underlined its ambitions by outclassing FC Gütersloh 5-0. Robert Skov, Leopold Querfeld, Danilho Doekhi, Andrei Ilic and Woo-Yeong Jeong got on the scoresheet. This victory meant that Union reached the second round of the DFB Cup for the tenth time.

Gütersloh had a good opportunity through Luis Frieling in the 55th minute, but goalkeeper Matheo Raab's excellent performance thwarted their plans. Union had shown rather weak performances in preparation, but they now seem to have forgotten this clear defeat.

Magdeburg was also able to record a clear victory and won 3-1 against 1. FC Saarbrücken. Martijn Kaars and Rayan Ghrieb were the scorers for Magdeburg, while Saarbrücken was able to reduce the score through Tim Civeja. However, Saarbrücken failed to take advantage of the good chances in the first half, which ultimately turned out to be decisive.

League outlook

There is no time to lose for Bayer Leverkusen as the team urgently needs to improve in order to have a successful start to the coming league season. The upcoming opponents in the first Bundesliga will be TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and the fans are hoping for a more convincing performance than today. When you look at the team, it's clear that a big change is coming under Erik ten Hag. Many top performers, including Florian Wirtz and Jonathan Tah, have left the club and it remains to be seen what these new challenges will mean for the club.

The DFB Cup round traditionally provides excitement and surprises - and the first games this season have impressively demonstrated this. All that remains to be said is that it will be exciting to see what else this season has to offer!