The 2021 DFB-Pokal Final decided the winner of the

2020–21 DFB-Pokal The 2020–21 DFB-Pokal was the 78th season of the annual German Association football, football cup competition. Sixty-four teams participated in the competition, including all teams from the previous year's Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga. The compe ...

, the 78th season of the annual German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

cup competition. The match was played on Thursday, 13 May 2021 (on the

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, a German public holiday) at the Olympiastadion in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. The match was originally scheduled for Saturday, 22 May 2021, but was moved to an earlier date prior to the completion of the league season in Germany. This was due to fixture density caused by the late start of the season, originating from the postponement of the end of the previous season as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. As with other competitions, the match was played behind closed doors without any spectators. The match featured

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig or informally as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company ...

and

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

. Dortmund won the final 4–1 for their fifth

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

title. Due to the scheduling change, the match was the first DFB-Pokal final since

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

to be played prior to the end of the league season, and the first final since

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to not be played on a Saturday. Additionally, it was the first final not played on a

weekend The weekdays and weekend are the complementary parts of the week, devoted to labour and rest, respectively. The legal weekdays (British English), or workweek (American English), is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. In most o ...

since

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, which was also the only prior final played on a Thursday. As winners, Borussia Dortmund featured in the 2021 edition of the

DFL-Supercup The Franz Beckenbauer Supercup or ''German Super Cup'' is a one-off association football, football match in Germany that features the winners of the Bundesliga championship and the DFB-Pokal. The competition is run by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (E ...

at the start of the following season, and facing the champion of the 2020–21 edition of the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

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. The winner of the DFB-Pokal also earns automatic qualification for the group stage of the 2021–22 edition of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. However, as Dortmund already qualified for the 2021–22 edition of the

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through their position in the Bundesliga, the spot went to the team in sixth, and the league's

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

play-off round spot went to the team in seventh.

Teams

''In the following table, finals until 1943 were in the Tschammerpokal era, since 1953 were in the DFB-Pokal era.''

Background

Route to the final

The DFB-Pokal began with 64 teams in a

single-elimination A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

knockout cup competition. There were a total of five rounds leading up to the final. Teams were drawn against each other, and the winner after 90 minutes would advance. If still tied, 30 minutes of

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

was played. If the score was still level, a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

was used to determine the winner. ''Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away).''

Match

Details

Notes

References

External links

*
Match report
at kicker.de
Match report
at WorldFootball.net
Match report
at Fussballdaten.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Dfb-Pokal Final 2021

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2020–21 in German football cups RB Leipzig matches Borussia Dortmund matches Football competitions in Berlin May 2021 sports events in Germany 2021 in Berlin