Leipzig’s German Cup title defense ends in 1-0 loss at Wolfsburg

WOLFSBURG, Germany: Leipzig coach Marco Rose mourned the end of a “great journey” as the team’s two-year reign as holder of the German Cup ended in the second round Tuesday in a 1-0 loss at Wolfsburg.

Vaclav Cerny scored off a pass from Tiago Tomas in the 14th minute. A red card for Leipzig forward Yussuf Poulsen for a second booking in the 56th minute set Leipzig on course for their first German Cup loss after 13 wins since defeat to Borussia Dortmund in the 2021 final.

“A great journey for us has come to an end,” Rose said. “We’ve had some great results in the (German Cup) recently and won the title twice. This year, sadly that won’t be the case.”

Leipzig have reached the cup final in four of the last five seasons, winning the last two, and last exited the competition this early in a second-round loss on penalties to Bayern Munich in the 2017-18 season.

Union Berlin’s miserable season continued as it was beaten 1-0 by Stuttgart for an 11th straight loss in all competitions, and its fourth game in a row without scoring. Stuttgart’s goal came when Union goalkeeper Frederik Rønnow parried Jamie Leweling’s shot straight to the feet of Deniz Undav to score.

The German Cup was arguably Union’s last chance of success this season, as they have lost all three of its group-stage games so far in their first Champions League campaign and are 15th in the Bundesliga. The slump follows Union’s most successful season ever with a fourth-place finish in the league.

For Cologne too, an already troubled season got even worse in a 3-2 loss to second-division Kaiserslautern. Cologne are second-to-last in the Bundesliga and were coming off a 6-0 loss to Leipzig on Saturday.

Borussia Moenchengladbach beat Heidenheim at home for the