Shots hitting the crossbar, three shocks: Cup scare Bielefeld implodes in 16 minutes

Arminia Bielefeld, the third-division team that annoys the favorites, is a reputation the club has earned this season. And they're preparing to do the same with VfB Stuttgart in the DFB Cup final. Their first chance, however, hits the crossbar – and after that, things get tougher almost every minute.

The fans around the Marathon Gate had already jumped to their feet – and then held their breath in horror. It couldn't be true: The ball wasn't in the goal. Blue and white horror. In the stands and on the pitch. Instead of going in, the ball hit the crossbar. With a bang.

Noah Sarenren Bazee had the chance to score the opening goal. He could have put Arminia Bielefeld ahead in the DFB Cup final against VfB Stuttgart. He could have once again made the underdogs look like a dreaded threat to the favorites. He didn't. What happened in the 12th minute is truly unbelievable.

Joel Grodowski escaped the disorganized Stuttgart side on the left wing and played a low pass into the penalty area. Louis Oppie missed the ball, but was lucky that it deflected to Sarenren Bazee. The 28-year-old was completely unmarked in front of Alexander Nübel. But there were no cheers – instead, horror spread. And it really crept into the Arminia players' bones in the minutes that followed.

The old motto: If you don't score up front, you'll get it at the back, holds true this Saturday evening too. Just three minutes later, it was VfB who were celebrating. Their choice of position meant they were in front of the Bielefeld fans. It was Nick Woltemade who scored. The striker who just keeps scoring these days—and is thus giving himself a busy summer, having been invited by national coach Julian Nagelsmann for the Nations League Final Four for the first time and then scheduled to play in the U21 European Championship.

0-1 from Bielefeld's perspective – thanks to their unwitting assistance. Mael Corboz had played the ball uncontrollably into the feet of Angelo Stiller, who had made a rapid recovery for the final. Stiller reacted quickly and immediately passed the ball to Woltemade on the left wing. The man who transformed from "Stolpermade" to "Woltemessi" ran alone towards goalkeeper Jonas Kersken. Kersken managed to get a hand on the ball, but was unable to stop him.

Bielefeld messes up, Stuttgart takes full advantage

As if that weren't enough of a setback, things continued to get even worse for Bielefeld. In the 22nd minute, Enzo Millot made it 0-2 – following a corner for Arminia. Again, Stiller intervened decisively. After his clearance, Schreck and Wörl interfered with each other, which led to Millot. He immediately passed the ball to Deniz Undav, who was sprinting alongside him, but continued to run. The two of them sped toward the Arminia goal. Kersken made himself as wide as possible, but Undav passed to Millot, who only had to slot the ball into the empty net.

While the VfB-occupied East Stand prepared to let the party escalate further, the crowd across the hall slowly grew quieter. And just six minutes later, the plug was finally pulled. 0-3, this time Undav himself scored. Again, it was an individual error by Bielefeld: Maximilian Großer lost the ball to Stiller in the build-up play—Stiller, of course, who had suffered an ankle injury two weeks ago—who immediately sent Undav deep, and the German international was able to finish the final blow for the underdog in front of Nagelsmann.

As Nübel rushed from his goal to the sideline, joyfully hugging everyone on his team who was anywhere near, the blue-and-whites were in shock. The fans were paralyzed, their flags fluttering limply. Only 28 minutes had been played, but the game was decided. The belief that had carried Arminia to the cup final had evaporated. Lost in the opponent's celebrations.

"But it's also shit"

"There were about 10 or 15 minutes where we weren't there. The opponent took full advantage of that," said coach Mitch Kniat after the match on ZDF. The third-division team, which had achieved promotion to the 2. Bundesliga, had knocked four Bundesliga teams out of the competition: 1. FC Union Berlin, SC Freiburg, Werder Bremen, and finally, defending champions Bayer Leverkusen in the semifinals. Sarenren Bazee first gifted the fifth team a gift, but then VfB proved too greedy and exploited mistakes. "We simply made too many individual errors, which were punished," said Christopher Lannert.

At least in the stands, heads eventually lifted again; on the pitch, they were never completely down anyway. Defiance took hold. And the pride of having even made it to Berlin.

The euphoria almost boiled over again in the final stages. A game between ten and 140 decibels. Suddenly, the score was 1-4, scored in the 82nd minute by Julian Kania, who had been substituted on two minutes earlier. He is now the first third-division player to score in a cup final. A consolation goal, or so it seemed, nice, but useless. Or was it? Because suddenly, the 2-4 score in the 85th minute made some blue-and-white hearts beat faster again. Josha Vagnoman's own goal caused gasps – on both sides. Would this be the craziest comeback of all time?

A game between resignation and unrealistic hope, which finally ended at 9:58 p.m. The final whistle blew. 2:4. Lost. "I always say, a 4:0 win looks like crap, a 4:2 win is a bit nicer, but it's also crap," said Lannert.

And yet the chants of "Bielefeld, Bielefeld" were almost as loud as they had been at the beginning of the evening. "I wear the medal with pride, and I'm very, very proud of my team. Those are the two things that will last forever," said Kniat. Besides, there's still something to celebrate.

The team and around 100,000 fans were in Berlin. They were promoted to the 2nd division. And it was also a warm-up for tomorrow's championship celebration and Thursday. Then Arminia will be in another cup final. It's against Sportfreunde Lotte for the Westphalia Cup.