DFB Pokal live: Hamburg vs Bayern Munich - Where to watch

February 12, 2014 By Samrin Hasib

Topics: Hamburg, Bayern Munich, DFB Pokal, Live Stream, TV Schedules, Live Scores

If there was ever a time for Hamburger SV to not want to take on Bayern München in the DFB Pokal, Wednesday would really be it.

Preview: Will Hamburg’s problems come to the forefront once again?

The fans and the players are currently not on the best of terms at Hamburg. Rafael Van der Vaart is no longer the fan favorite he used to be. Defeat after defeat in the Bundesliga has left the club in the relegation zone. The Bundesliga’s dinosaur, the only team in the league to have featured in every Bundesliga season, is in danger of being relegated this season.

Naturally, a manager who knows his team is fighting for survival would like to see his side be eliminated from all other competitions to focus on the league. However, HSV fans will not want to accept yet another defeat. Bayern beat them 3-1 in the league in their previous meeting where Hamburg showed plenty of signs of life under Bert Van Marwijk. But the manager is now holding on to his job by a thread.

Pierre-Michel Lassogga is set to be absent due to a muscular problem. He had troubled Bayern endlessly in the league fixture. Jonathan Tah might make the squad but former Munich player, Marcell Jansen, might not recover from a calf problem in time. For Bayern, Bastian Schweinsteiger is set to make his long awaited return to the squad. Unfortunately, Franck Ribery is set to miss out following surgery for a ruptured blood vessel.

Despite having beaten Hamburg 9-2 last season in a match in which Claudio Pizarro was the star of the show, Bayern is not going to rest on their laurels. This is what Pep Guardiola had to say according to Bayern’s official website:

“We can’t afford to think about Freiburg or Arsenal. Hamburg is the most important game of all. We can’t win any titles tomorrow but we can lose one.”

Bayern is coming into this one on the back of a tightly fought 0-2 win over Nürnberg in which Toni Kroos was once again an unused substitute while HSV is coming into this one on the back of a 0-2 hammering at the hands of Hertha Berlin. Van Marwijk did not talk about the upcoming match in the DFB Pokal in the semifinal as he left the press conference after only three minutes.