Borussia Dortmund open their 2026-27 DFB-Pokal campaign tonight against HEBC in the first round.
Having begun the Bundesliga season on a winning note, the BVB now hope to launch fresh bid for a sixth title in the domestic cup with a resounding victory in Hamburg.
For just the second time in their history, HEBC are participating in the Pokal as a historic first Hamburg Cup win back in May sealed their passage here.
The minnows ply their trade in the fifth-tier of German football and are heavily expected to lose to their mightier rivals by a big margin.
But, stranger things have happened in the past. Dortmund have suffered the humiliation of a first-round exit on exactly 12 occasions in their history.
Here's a quick recap of every single one of those defeats:
Dortmund 1-2 Phonix Lubeck (1938)
Having marched all the way to the quarter-finals in their inaugural appearance in 1937, Dortmund suffered an immediate in the very next with all three goals of the match coming in the first half.
Concordia Hamburg 4-3 Dortmund (1952)
It took a good 14 years before the BVB made another first-round cup exit, this time on penalties following a topsy-turvy clash that saw both sides net in stoppage-time too.
1860 Munich 2-0 Dortmund (1964)
Dortmund reached their first ever DFB-Pokal final in 1963, the year they also won the Bundesliga, but went out in the first round the following year. Interestingly, another year later, they lifted the cup for the first time.
FC Koln 1-0 Dortmund (1967)
A late goal in this match dumped BVB from the cup in the very first round. As destiny would have it, the Billy Goats came back to haunt them again in 1968, eliminating the side from the semi-finals.
Eintracht Frankfurt 6-2 Dortmund (1969)
One of Dortmund's worst ever games in the domestic cup history. With two finals and three first-round exits, the BVB clearly went through the motions in the DFB-Pokal in the 1960s.
Dortmund 0-3 Kickers Offenbach (1971)
One of those rare occasions where Dortmund were beaten at home in the first round of the cup.
Dortmund 1-4 Hannover 96 (1973)
In their next Pokal appearance, two years later, Die Borussen were hammered at home once again. Hannover's Rainer Stiller scored an own goal for the BVB and made up for it by netting their fourth.
Hamburger 4-1 Dortmund (1983)
Another 10 years from their last DFB-Pokal first round exit, Hamburger dealt BVB their eighth such humiliation with a commanding display as Bernd Klotz's late goal was nothing more than consolation.
SpVgg Furth 3-1 Dortmund (1991)
Since clinching just their second German Cup in 1989, Dortmund struggled to hit the heights in the next two years, going out in second round as holders followed by this first-round exit.
Wattenscheid 4-3 Dortmund (1996)
What makes this defeat stand out is that Dortmund were two-time defending German champions here. But that didn't stop a second-tier Wattenscheid from pulling off one of their biggest upsets in history.
VfL Wolfsburg II 1-0 Dortmund (2001)
The first of Dortmund's two first-round exits in the Pokal this century came against Wolfsburg reserves in a rather unexpected defeat. But months later, the BVB clinched Bundesliga.
Eintracht Braunschweig 2-1 Dortmund (2006)
It's been 21 years now since Dortmund lost out in the first round of the German Cup, with Braunschweig fighting back from a goal down to dump them out.
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