Eintracht Trier

In the spring of 1998 a third-tier side from the Mosel valley knocked Schalke 04 out of the DFB-Pokal, then did the same to Borussia Dortmund. The semi-final against MSV Duisburg went to penalties, and there the run stopped.

The club took the German Amateur Championship in 1988 and again in 1989.

Five seasons in the 2. Bundesliga from 1976 to 1981, then a gap of twenty-one years before the second stint, 2002 to 2005, under Paul Linz, who took them up. Seventh in 2002/03 remains the highest the club has finished. The Rheinlandpokal is the compensation — fifteen wins, including a run of five in six years between 2007 and 2013, and the most recent in 2026.

Robin Koch came through the academy here before the career that followed.

The fixtures that fill the ground are the Saar-Mosel-Derby against 1. FC Saarbrücken and the Südwest-Derby with SV Elversberg — both short trips, both across a regional border that matters more locally than it does anywhere else. The Moselstadion holds 10,256, a figure that puts the 1998 cup nights in proportion: Trier beat Dortmund with a ground smaller than one stand at the Westfalenstadion. The city itself is Roman, the oldest in Germany, and the club plays in black and blue on the edge of it.