Bayern and Stuttgart for the fourth time: the DFB-Pokal final is the one meeting the Swabians can finally win
By the time Stuttgart and Bayern walk out at the Olympiastadion on May 23, they will already know each other's sides better than any neighbouring dressing rooms in the Bundesliga. This is the fourth time these two teams meet in the 2025-26 season. Bayern have won all three previous fixtures, in three different competitions, and Stuttgart arrive at the final as holders who have yet to put a real dent in the favourites.
The run started last August, when Stuttgart hosted the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup at the MHPArena as cup winners and watched Bayern lift the trophy 2-1 thanks to Harry Kane and a debut goal from Luis Diaz. The two Bundesliga meetings since have not been close. Bayern won 5-0 in Stuttgart in the first half of the league season, then followed it up with a 4-2 win in Munich on April 19, less than a week before Stuttgart's semi-final with Freiburg.
One more shot, in the one game that matters most
For Sebastian Hoeness, the pattern is obvious and uncomfortable. Three games, three losses, an aggregate scoreline that would embarrass most title contenders. The one saving grace for Stuttgart is that none of those meetings decided a trophy. This one will.
Hoeness is the coach who took Stuttgart from relegation fights to a Champions League side, and last season delivered the club's first major trophy in almost 20 years by beating Arminia Bielefeld in Berlin. That trophy is why Thursday night against Freiburg mattered so much. For all the near-misses against Bayern in the league and the Supercup, Stuttgart are still the holders of the one domestic cup Bayern have not lifted since 2020.
Bayern's form looks different this time
Vincent Kompany's side are not the team Stuttgart drew with as often as they lost to a season ago. Harry Kane and Luis Diaz have become a functional front two, Michael Olise has added a creative edge from the right, and their 2-0 semi-final win over Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday was built on control rather than fireworks. That is the uncomfortable part for Stuttgart. Bayern are winning without having to play at their best.
Kane has been involved in all three wins over Stuttgart already this season, and Bayern's midfield has been able to strangle Atakan Karazor and Angelo Stiller in a way Freiburg did not on Thursday. If the Pokal final plays out the way the previous three meetings did, it is difficult to see where a Stuttgart goal comes from, let alone three.
Why Hoeness might fancy it anyway
Cup finals have a habit of ignoring form, and Stuttgart have two things going for them that make the pattern worth questioning.
The first is Deniz Undav, who scored against Freiburg and has quietly been one of the most in-form forwards in the division. The second is a squad that has learned how to win tight, scrappy games in Europe this season, which is exactly the kind of match a one-off cup final in Berlin tends to become.
Tiago Tomas's 119th-minute backheel at the MHPArena on Thursday is a useful reminder too. Stuttgart have scored late, decisive goals all season. They did it to Bielefeld in last year's final too. If any team can find a fourth version of this fixture that does not end the same way, it should be them.
It is still a long way from a prediction. Bayern are the overwhelming favourites, and the numbers back that up. But for the first time in 2025-26, Stuttgart get to meet them with something real on the line, and a 90 minutes (or 120, or penalties) that does not turn on a league table or a pre-season trophy. That is usually when the gap between the best club in the country and the second-best gets interesting.
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