The Road to Düsseldorf
The 1974 DFB-Pokal final took place in the Rheinstadion in Düsseldorf. Due to the World Cup, which took place in Germany in the summer of 1974, the DFB-Pokal final was held at the beginning of the 1974/1975 Bundesliga season. On their way to Düsseldorf Eintracht had to eliminate several Bundesliga top teams.
In the first two rounds Eintracht beat Tennis-Borussia Berlin and Kassel. Then, in the quarter final, the Eagles needed to go into extra time to beat 1. FC Köln 4-3. Bernd Hölzenbein scored a brace during after regular time and locked in the ticket for the semi-final. There the Eagles had to battle it out against the league champions FC Bayern München and their international superstars. Eintracht beat the Bavarian squad featuring Franz Beckenbauer, Paul Breitner and Uli Hoeneß after a last minute penalty, which Jürgen Kalb converted.
Final against Hamburger SV
30,000 Eintracht fans came to the final in Düsseldorf against Hamburger SV. It was the first time that Eintracht and HSV had sponsors on their jerseys. The German broadcasting station ZDF threatened not to broadcast the final as a sign of protest against the several advertisements, but gave in at last.
Eintracht took the lead in the 40th minute, but HSV levelled the score 15 minutes before the end of regular time. During extra time Bernd Hölzenbein (96’) and Wolfgang Kraus (115’) decided the game and led the Eagles to their first DFB-Pokal win.
After the final whistle Jürgen Grabowski switched jerseys with a HSV player. Hence, he was given the cup wearing the wrong jersey. SGE’s sponsor at that time was not amused, so that "Grabi" had to return to the newspaper and TV reporters wearing an SGE jersey. After the game the Eintracht legend said to the press: “Winning the DFB-Pokal with Eintracht is as important to me as winning the World Cup with Germany.”
