They aren't getting enough of the ball for the camera too zoom in :P

Whenever I see him play he's not trying to do what made him great for us and in the national team, fast transitions with possession, burst through the midfield forcing the defence onto him. Maybe he's lacking the confidence, maybe he's been instructed not try to do too much, either way the kid needs to be freed.

Neuer GÖAT ÖAT

Agreed on all counts.

LÖL

Robben should be off to be fair.

Lahm GÖAT ÖAT of all time ainec.

Renato freed!

Adios Carrasco

Allez p$g

Hold for the lot £££

Fml

Perfect opportunity to lose in penalties at Bielefeld in the quarter finals again. /sarcasm

LOOOOOOOL PSG

LOL Suarez

That looked off side. Jammy bastards. **** since zlatan left.

Griezmann is a bum in important games. Might as well fool a bum team into paying you like 100m for him, United or w/e.

Lol how do you end the game after giving a guy a yellow card for time wasting?

Happened in last year's relegation playoffs in Germany, too. This is one of the most ******ed refereeing things I have seen in my life. The trailing team is trying to equalize, the leading team wastes time during stoppage time, receives a yellow for it (which costs even more time) and then the referee won't add additional time for that.

Do these people have brains?

I got it (Google translate works fine lol).

Wow Lahms retirement is a surprise to me.

It is kind of lame that they make such a big deal out of it though.

Yep Marty, another play on words.

DFB-Pokal, Round of 16: Wednesday matches

So far Hamburg, Bielefeld, Bayern and Gladbach have advanced to the quarterfinal. The remaining four spots will be filled today:

18:30 CET: Sportfreunde Lotte (III) - 1860 München (II)

Lotte is probably the biggest surprise of the cup season so far, having already eliminated two Bundesliga clubs: Bremen fell victim to another first round exit (1-2), and Leverkusen lost to Lotte on penalties, despite playing 11v10 for over 40 minutes. Last season, Lotte won promotion to the 3rd league, and is currently sitting in 7th, just 3 points shy off another promotion spot (the league is also very tight, 3rd and 17th are sepearated by just 10 points right now). In the Round of 16, they will meet their (at least on paper) easiest opponent yet:

1860 Munich is a club where reality and club ambitions could not be farther apart. Most seasons, the official goal of the club is gaining promotion back to the 1st league, but in reality the only thing saving them from relegation to the 3rd league in 2015 was a late winner in the playoff vs. Holstein Kiel. Right now, they once again sit in 14th, just two points off the relegation spot. They beat Karlsruhe (2-1) and Würzburg (4-3 on pens) to get here.

It will be the first time the clubs meet each other, and bookies suggest it's gonna be very close.
Odds: 1X2: 2.83 - 3.20 - 2.95, to qualify: 1.93 - 1.99

18:30 CET: SV Sandhausen (II) - Schalke 04 (I)

Sandhausen is often referred to as the most boring draw you can get. After being saved from relegation in 2013 due to Duisburg losing its license due to financial problems, Sandhausen have more and more established themselves in the second tier of German football, now sitting in 6th, which would be their best result everafter finishing 13th/13th/12th in the last three seasons. They also had a good recent form, being unbeaten in their last five league games. In the cup, they edged Paderborn with a late 2-1 winner, before they upset Freiburg by beating them 4-3 on penalties.

Schalke has already come closer to Berlin than last year, when they lost to Gladbach in the second Round. This time, another deep cup run might be their only chance at European football, as their league season has been pretty dreadful so far. 12 points off the top 4, but maybe the recent draw against Bayern gave them a bit of confidence going forward. So far, they beat 6th-tier Villingen 4-1 and Nürnberg 3-2.

The teams have already met in the cup once: In 2012, Schalke won the second round match 3-0 at home.
Odds: 1X2: 5.06 - 3.7 - 1.88, to qualify: 3.48 - 1.40

20:45 CET: Borussia Dortmund (I) - Hertha BSC (I), live on ARD

For the last five seasons, every final has featured either Bayern or Dortmund, three times it was a direct battle for the title. Dortmund has lost the last three cup finals, twice to Bayern and once to Wolfsburg. They will be very keen on reaching Berlin for the fourth time in a row, but the rumblings surrounding a potential transfer of Aubameyang could disturb them quite a bit, even after the strong performance against Leipzig last weekend. In the first round, they beat Trier 3-0, before meeting Union Berlin in the second round, where they were pushed all the way to a penalty-shootout, where Weidenfeller crushed the Union dreams and Dortmund won 3-0.

Hertha will hope to reach a home final (the final is being played in Berlin since 1985) for the first time - ironically their amateur club managed to get there in 1993, getting narrowly beaten by Leverkusen. But first, they will need to move Dortmund out of their way, which is a monumental task despite their good league form: The last home loss of Dortmund in all competitions dates back to August, when they lost the Supercup to Bayern. Their last home loss in the cup came against Bremen - in 2009. Hertha struggled in the first round, beating 4th tier Regensburg 5-3 on penalties. Their second round win against St. Pauli was a bit more convincing.

The two teams have obviously met dozens of times in the league, but also three times in the cup, with Dortmund winning all three, including last years semi-final, where they crushed Herthas hopes of a home final by beating them 3-0.
Odds: 1X2: 1.39 - 5.25 - 9.34, to qualify: 1.16 - 6.00.

20:45 CET: Hannover 96 (II) - Eintracht Frankfurt (I)

Hannover probably doesn't care about a cup run too much, although it would be a nice addition to their league run, where they try to gain promotion right after being relegated last season. So far, it is looking pretty good for them, as they sit in 2nd behind Stuttgart. Their run at Berlin so far consisted of a struggle against 4th-tier Offenbach, where they won 3-2 after extra time, and a 6-1 smashing of league rivals Düsseldorf, where they led 4-0 after just 16 minutes.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the league season has been Eintracht Frankfurt. They took a point off Bayern in one of the best matches of the season, and beat Leverkusen, Dortmund and Schalke to find themselves in 3rd after 19 games. In the cup, they so far had the full schedule, with both their matches against Magdeburg (4-3) and Ingolstadt (4-1) going to penalty shoot-outs. So, if the game is close, they might just have enough experience to get through.

Their last and only encounter in the cup dates back to 1972, where the matches where still played over two legs, with Frankfurt winning their home game 4-2, and Hannover winning theirs 1-0.
Odds: 1X2: 2.78 - 3.23 - 2.84, to qualify: 1.93 - 2.00

Last time we played Sandhausen, I was in attendance and Ciprian Marica (!) scored a sick bicycle kick goal

Lotte were deemed slight favorites by some bookies and duly fulfilled that role so far. LOL 1860, go home you are drunk.

7 or 8 yellow and one red card at the very end of the match. Seriously 1860, you guys are absolutely horrendous and should kindly disappear into 3rd or 4th league.