German Cup: Daniel Batz the toast of Saarbrücken

"This is the biggest sensation since the birth of Christ," exclaimed Saarbrücken's jubilant vice president, Dieter Ferner, at full-time. The former goalkeeper and two-time head coach of the club where he is considered a legend, couldn't hide his joy as the party just got started in the capital of the German state of Saarland.

The star of the show for Saarbrücken was, however, their current goalkeeper Daniel Batz. The 29-year-old has only played a handful of games for his club since moving there in 2017 from neighboring SV Elversberg in 2017, but he rose to the occasion, saving five penalties in all - one from Fortuna's Rouwen Hennings in the final minutes of the 90 and another four in the shootout.

"Five penalties! That's more than I'd saved together in my whole career," said an astounded Batz.

'We want more'

It seems as though Saarbrücken are not going to settle for a prestigious and lucrative semi-final against another Bundesliga opponent.

The scorer of their goal, Tobias Janicke, says they now have their sights set firmly on reaching the final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin in May.

"We want more. If you are in the semifinal, you want to be in the final," the attacking midfielder said.

"This here is simply brilliant." added their delighted coach Lukas Kwasniok. "But we want to continue our journey."

For Batz, 'unrealistic' Bundesliga dream remains

In an exclusive interview with DW the following day, Saarbrücken's man of the hour voiced a similar sentiment. Asked if there was an opponent he would prefer to meet in the semifinals, Batz insisted that he didn't really care.

"But I don't want to face Bayern until the final in Berlin," he said. "Once you've reached the semifinals it's just one more step to get to Berlin, to the final. So at this point, it's okay to dream."

In terms of what Tuesday night's performance could do for his career prospects, Batz, who played a single game for Freiburg in the Bundesliga in 2012, conceded that adding to his total in the top flight remained an aspiration that is not easily abandoned.

"Of course the Bundesliga remains my dream," he said. But at 29, it's not all that realistic anymore. On the other hand, you can never say never."

Still, beyond now and the third week of April, when the semifinals are to be contested, Batz said his focus would be on doing whatever he could to help get Saarbrücken promoted to the third division from the fourth-tier Regionalliga Südwest.