The 2010–11 DFB-Pokal was the 68th season of the annual German football cup competition. The competition began on 13 August 2010 with the first round and concluded on 21 May 2011 with the final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.[2] The competition was won by Schalke 04, who eliminated title holder Bayern Munich in the semi-finals. By clinching the cup, Schalke thus qualified for the play-off round of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League.
Participating clubs
The following 64 teams competed in the first round:
^ abSV Sandhausen and SV Babelsberg take part on behalf of their cup-winning reserve teams as these are not permitted to enter the competition.
^ abcFinalists from the three regions with the most participating teams in their league competitions (Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Westphalia) are also allowed to compete.
^Since VfL Osnabrück entered the competition via their league placement, Eintracht Braunschweig and Heeslingen as losing semi-finalists played a single match to determine the second Lower Saxony participant. Braunschweig won this match with 0–0 (aet), 4–1 on penalties. However, since Braunschweig eventually gained access to the competition via their league placement as well, Heeslingen were awarded the spot.
Draw
The draws for the different rounds are conducted as following:[3] For the first round, the participating teams will be split into two pots. The first pot contains all teams which have qualified through their regional cup competitions, the best four teams of the 3rd Liga and the bottom four teams of the Second Bundesliga. Every team from this pot will be drawn to a team from the second pot, which contains all remaining professional teams. The teams from the first pot will be set as the home team in the process.
The two-pot scenario will also be applied for the second round, with the remaining 3rd Liga/amateur teams in the first pot and the remaining professional teams in the other pot. Once one pot is empty, the remaining pairings will be drawn from the other pot with the first-drawn team for a match serving as hosts. For the remaining rounds, the draw will be conducted from just one pot. Any remaining 3rd Liga/amateur team will be the home team if drawn against a professional team. In every other case, the first-drawn team will serve as hosts.
Matches
First round
The draw for this round took place on 5 June 2010.[4] The matches were played on 13–16 August 2010.
The draw for this round took place on 31 October 2010.[7] Six matches took place on 21–22 December 2010; the ties Offenbach–Nürnberg and Koblenz–Kaiserslautern, originally scheduled for 21 December, have been postponed to mid-January because of inclement weather.[8][9]
