27 years ago today: Werkself win the DFB Cup

The first DFB Cup final for Bayer 04 was played on 12 June of that year. The opponents, the Hertha Berlin second team, were the rank outsiders. 15,000 Black and Red fans followed their team to Berlin. The Werkself were in control of the game for the full 90 minutes and only conceded one shot on goal. Equally, the favourites found it hard to penetrate the Hertha defence. Then, on 77 minutes, the striker Ulf Kirsten broke the deadlock with a header from a Pavel Hapal cross. 1-0 to the Werkself! That secured the club’s second title after the UEFA Cup win in 1988.

Match stats:

Bayer 04: Vollborn - Foda, Wörns, Fischer, Lupescu, Kree, Happe, Scholz, Hapal, Thom, Kirsten

Hertha BSC Reserves: Fiedler - O. Schmidt (73. Höpfner), Meyer, Nied, Kolczyk, Ramelow, Klews, A. Schmidt, Kaiser, Holzbecher, Gezen

Goals: 1-0 Kirsten (77’)

Referee: Dr. Markus Merk (Kaiserslautern)

Booked: Kirsten - /

Attendance: 76.391