Dortmund vs Werder Bremen Preview: A Ninth Cup Meeting, Three Straight Pokal Defeats, and Füllkrug Coming Home
Borussia Dortmund and Werder Bremen meet for the ninth time in the German Cup on Tuesday night, and for the first time since 2020. The eight ties before this one are split four apiece — but the last three all went Werder’s way, in 2009, 2019 and 2020. The most recent meeting of any kind was seventeen days ago in the Bundesliga: Dortmund led twice at the Signal Iduna Park and drew 2-2, with Niclas Füllkrug, on loan from Dortmund, levelling deep into stoppage time.
The Cup Record Nobody in Dortmund Wants to Talk About
There is a quirk to this fixture that no amount of league form erases. Across 124 competitive meetings the ledger is broadly even — 56 Dortmund wins, 46 Werder wins, 22 draws — and inside the Pokal it is dead level at four wins apiece. But the three most recent cup ties, all at the last-sixteen stage, were won by Werder, and each in a way that stung.
In the last of them, in February 2020, Werder led 2-0 at half-time through Davie Selke and a Leonardo Bittencourt volley; Erling Haaland pulled one back after coming off the bench, Milot Rashica restored the cushion, and Giovanni Reyna’s curled finish set up a finale that Werder somehow survived. A decade earlier, in 2019, the two sides played out a 3-3 thriller before Werder took the shootout 7-5, with Paco Alcácer and Maximilian Philipp among those who missed. And in 2009, exactly a year after Dortmund had won 2-1 at the same stage, Hugo Almeida and Claudio Pizarro overturned an eleventh-minute lead inside the second half.
The compensation is historical rather than recent: Dortmund’s 4-1 win in the 1989 final, the first meeting of all in 1937 (a 4-3 away win after extra time), and a 2-0 home win in 1963. The crowd inside a full Signal Iduna Park will be well aware of all three.
Seventeen Days Since: What Actually Happened on 10 October
The recent league meeting is the tape both coaching staffs will have watched. Dortmund went in front twice at home and could not hold either lead; Kovač afterwards framed the problem as one of duration rather than quality, arguing his side controlled around eighty-five minutes of the ninety and needed to do it for the whole match. managing director Lars Ricken was blunter, describing the outcome as pure disappointment.
Since then Dortmund have won their last two: a Champions League away victory, then a 1-0 at home to Eintracht Frankfurt decided late by Maximilian Beier. Serhou Guirassy, scorer of two in that European tie, remains the focal point of the attack. The concern attached to Kovač’s side is at the other end of the pitch, where clean sheets have been scarce and where a two-goal cushion was surrendered to this very opponent less than three weeks ago.
Werder Arrive Unbeaten in Three, With a Striker Returning Home
Werder come into this unbeaten in their last three. Two draws — the 2-2 at Dortmund and a 2-2 at home to Paderborn — and then a 3-2 win away at Mainz last weekend, their most recent outing. Reporting this week credits them with having recovered points from losing positions four times already in the Bundesliga, which tells you plenty about their temperament even when the defending has been loose.
The story of the trip, though, is Niclas Füllkrug. He is on loan from Dortmund, he is Werder’s leading scorer this season, and he scored in the meeting earlier this month. Returning to the stadium he used to play for, having been the man who took a result off his parent club two weeks ago, is about as good a narrative as a cup second round delivers.
Where Werder are stretched is the treatment room. The absentee list doing the rounds this week runs to Jens Stage, Justin Njinmah, Keke Topp, Senne Lynen, Salim Musah, Skelly Alvero, Moussa Ndiaye and Felix Agu, with Olivier Deman a doubt after going off at half-time against Mainz. The positive is in goal: Karl Hein is reported fit again after a thigh problem.
Last Five Meetings
| Date | Competition | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 10 Oct 2026 | Bundesliga | Borussia Dortmund 2-2 Werder Bremen |
| 16 May 2026 | Bundesliga | Werder Bremen 0-2 Borussia Dortmund |
| Jan 2026 | Bundesliga | Borussia Dortmund 3-0 Werder Bremen |
| 25 Jan 2025 | Bundesliga | Borussia Dortmund 2-2 Werder Bremen |
| 31 Aug 2024 | Bundesliga | Werder Bremen 0-0 Borussia Dortmund |
Dortmund are unbeaten in these five: three wins and two draws, with Werder held scoreless in two of them. It is worth noting how different that picture is from the cup, where Werder have taken the last three ties — the two strands of this rivalry have run in opposite directions for a decade. There is also a red card thread if you go back further: in the three meetings before this run, a Dortmund player was sent off in each.
Three Things That Will Decide It
1. Whether Dortmund can hold a lead for ninety minutes
This is the whole of Kovač’s message since 10 October. Twice in front at home, twice caught, against a side that has made a habit of coming back. If Dortmund score first again, the question is not the quality of the football but the management of the twenty minutes that follow — and whether they treat a one-goal lead in a knockout tie with more care than they did in the league.
2. Füllkrug against the centre of the Dortmund defence
Nico Schlotterbeck is reported back in contention, which changes the look of that back line, but he has also had a strange record against this opponent in previous years. Füllkrug’s game is built on occupying two centre-backs, attacking the near post and finishing from tight angles; with Werder likely to spend long stretches without the ball, his service will be limited and his one or two chances will carry the whole of their attacking case.
3. What happens after seventy minutes
Werder’s resilience has been their defining trait this season while their defending has been their weakness — those two facts point in one direction, towards a match that opens up late. Dortmund have goals from the bench, Beier in particular, and Werder have already demonstrated they can score in the closing stages at this ground. Extra time is a real possibility, and both managers will have to decide how much of it they can see coming.
Expected Line-ups
Neither club had confirmed a starting eleven at the time of writing. The names below follow the most widely circulated projected sides and should be treated as provisional — check the team sheets roughly an hour before kick-off, especially for Werder, whose list of absentees is long enough to reshape the eleven.
Borussia Dortmund
- GK Gregor Kobel
- DF Kouakou Joane Gadou, Waldemar Anton, Nico Schlotterbeck
- MF Julian Ryerson, Joël Veerman, Daniel Svensson, Ramy Bensebaïni
- AM Carney Chukwuemeka, Jobe Bellingham
- ST Serhou Guirassy
Reported team news conflicts here: one preview describes Kovač as having a full squad with Schlotterbeck returning, another lists Ramy Bensebaïni as serving the second match of a suspension and Konstantinos Karetsas out with a ligament injury, with Alexander Meyer a doubt through illness and Chukwuemeka passed fit. We have not tried to reconcile the two versions.
Werder Bremen
- GK Karl Hein
- DF Arthur, Amos Pieper, Marco Friedl, Olivier Deman
- MF Reis, Senne Lynen*
- AM Chuki, Eren Dinkci, Marco Grüll
- ST Niclas Füllkrug
*The projection that these names come from was published incomplete — it ends at the attacking midfield three — and it also names Lynen while listing him among the absentees, so both the centre-forward and one midfield slot are best checked on the team sheet. Reported unavailable: Jens Stage, Justin Njinmah, Keke Topp, Lynen, Salim Musah, Skelly Alvero, Moussa Ndiaye and Felix Agu. Deman is a doubt. Thioune may rotate with a busy schedule in mind.
Key Battles
Guirassy against Friedl and Pieper
Dortmund’s reference point in attack against a Werder back line that conceded three at Mainz even in victory. Guirassy’s shooting volume is the highest in the Dortmund squad, and Friedl is the organiser of everything in front of him — whichever of the two wins the physical duel decides where this tie is played out.
Ryerson against Deman (or whoever starts at left-back)
Dortmund’s width comes from the wing-backs in this shape, and Werder’s left side is exactly the area under doubt after Deman went off at half-time last weekend. If the visitors are forced into an unplanned change there, it is the flank Dortmund will go after.
The bench against the last twenty minutes
Beier has already settled a league match at this ground late on. Werder answered a two-goal deficit here seventeen days ago with Füllkrug’s stoppage-time header. Neither manager will want to be level at 1-1 in the eightieth minute, because both know precisely what happens next.
Kit Note: Dortmund and Werder
With a Pokal tie on the board, the Dortmund rail leads with the cup shirt alongside the current home, away, third and goalkeeper shirts. Werder’s carries the new home shirt, the third kit and last season’s home. Everything below is live in the shop and priced identically across every size of a given shirt.
Borussia Dortmund — the 2026/27 home shirt, the new home, away and third shirts, the cup shirt and the goalkeeper shirt
Swipe to browse 6 Borussia Dortmund jerseys
Werder Bremen — the 2026/27 home shirt, the third kit and last season's home shirt
Swipe to browse 3 Werder Bremen jerseys
