Opposition Check: 1. FC Kaiserslautern
It was one of the biggest German football surprises of 2024: Second-division side 1. FC Kaiserslautern reached the DFB-Pokal final – their first real chance of winning the title in decades. And they did so despite a tough opponent: Bayer Leverkusen, the newly crowned German champions – and undefeated, too. The euphoria in the Palatinate region was immense. 23,000 tickets were officially available to Kaiserslautern fans, but in the end, around 40,000 FCK supporters are said to have secured tickets for the final at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin – a testament to how much this final appearance meant to the region. In the end, FCK narrowly lost 1-0, but the memories of this special journey will last forever.