Football
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Schalke fall in DFB-Pokal first round

Schalke became the biggest casualty of the first round of the DFB-Pokal on Monday night when they were beaten 2-1 by third division Dynamo Dresden.

The Royal Blues, who finished third in the Bundesliga last season, were never able to get a measure of a side who were relegated from the 2. Bundesliga in May, and they fell behind to goals from Justin Eilers and Nils Teixeira before launching a reaction.

Joel Matip's late header made for an interesting final 10 minutes, but Dresden held on in front of almost 30,000 fans.

It almost proved to be a day of upsets with Hamburg also going close to elimination.

Mirko Slomka's men needed a penalty shoot-out after a 2-2 draw to get the better of Energie Cottbus, who like Dresden dropped to the third tier at the end of last season.

Heiko Westermann levelled for the northern Germany side midway through the second half, after an opener from Manuel Zeitz but Cottbus withstood some relentless late pressure to force extra-time.

Rafael van der Vaart thought he had grabbed victory by netting directly from a free-kick, but Sven Michel levelled and forced penalties.

Rene Adler then made two saves in the shoot-out, with Van der Vaart, Johan Djourou, Marcell Jansen and Artjoms Rudnevs all spot on for the Bundesliga side.

The draw for the second round will be held on Saturday evening and will lack five top-flight teams in all, with Mainz, Stuttgart, Paderborn and Augsburg all falling at the first hurdle, together with Schalke. Last season, four Bundesliga sides were eliminated in the first round.

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