Hamburg deserve criticism

The northern Germany side was one of a record six Bundesliga clubs to go out in the first round and Fink expects lots of criticism to arrive over the coming days.

At the same time, the former Basle coach admits there can be no excuses for the abject performance after seeing his side twice squander the lead as it was dumped out 4-2 by 3.Bundesliga side Karlsruhe.

"We are going to get it from all angles for the next week," he said in the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper. "And this time, it is fully deserved.

"But we are professionals and we have got to cope with it.

"Even I find it very, very difficult to find anything positive from this game, even though we did make a good start to it.

"All that I can do now is look forwards because there is not very much positive to talk about.

"It is a poor start, but we saw what the reasons were and we will discuss it."

Northern Germany rivals Werder Bremen was also knocked out of the competition by third division opponents Preussen Munster and its director of sport Klaus Allofs says there is now renewed urgency in its search for a new striker.

Joseph Akpala from FC Brugge is its number one target and that transfer could now become even more of a priority.

"He is a candidate, but we have not yet reached an agreement with Brugge," said Allofs on his club's website.

"After this cup exit, I am going to have to sit down with my management colleagues and analyse the situation intensively and see if we can do something."