Bayern, Borussia Gladbach march on after tought German Cup tests
Holders Bayern Munich remains on course to retain the DFB-Pokal following a comfortable 2-0 win over Eintracht Braunschweig at the Allianz Arena.
Goals from David Alaba and Arjen Robben knocked the stuffing out of the impressive second division side that competed for solid spells in the match. Bayern peppered the Braunschweig goal in the opening exchanges with Franck Ribery and Robben threatening inside the first six minutes.
But Braunschweig, who were relegated from the Bundesliga last season, made a good impression in Munich with flashes of positive, short-passing football in midfield and on the counter. However, for all of Braunschweig's efforts in the first 45 minutes, they were undone by a controversial decision to award the home side a free-kick on the edge of the box after Robben went down under a light challenge.
But a piece of individual brilliance from Götze would kill of the tie as a contest. The attacking-midfielder skipped away from two defenders in a tight space and found the net from close range as Bayern recorded their 15th straight win in the German Cup.
Kevin De Bruyne's impressive run of assists continued as the midfielder added a 20th set-up of the season in Wolfsburg's 2-0 German Cup win at RB Leipzig.
After a hat-trick of assists in the 5-3 win at Werder Bremen on Sunday, De Bruyne was creator for Daniel Caligiuri who smashed past the Leipzig keeper from 20 yards with Timm Klose scoring after the interval.
The match-up was dubbed "El Plastico' by one German football commentator, referring to the controversial ownership structures of both clubs -- RB Leipzig are one of the clutch of Red Bull's sporting franchises and Wolfsburg are wholly owned by multinational car manufacturers Volkswagen.
RB Leipzig, though, had the strongest start of the teams with Israeli striker Omer Damari passing up a fine shooting opportunity on 18 minutes. The outcome could have been different had the second-tier club taken the lead with Wolfsburg punishing their profligacy two minutes later.
De Bruyne carried the ball on the right-hand side before picking out the run of Caligiuri who added his two goals at the weekend with a powerfully-driven shot into the top corner. Dieter Hecking's men booked a safe passage through to the last-eight with Klose thumping his header high into the net with less than 30 minutes left.
The first German Cup shock of the night came in Bielefeld where the Bundesliga's in-form side Werder Bremen went down at the SchücoArena, losing 3-1 to lower-league opponents.
While Bielefeld has a nine-point cushion at the top of the German third division, Bremen has been receiving rave reviews, jumping from bottom to the top-half of the league within a matter of weeks.
If you take the league table from when Viktor Skripnik took office at the Weser Stadion until now, Bremen would be third with 26 points from 14 games. Coached by the fiery character of Norbert Meier, Bielefeld took charge just past the half hour mark when Manuel Junglas had the easy task of tapping into an empty net after fine play by Tom Schütz.
Nine minutes after the break, Sebastian Schuppan converted from a set-piece to double their lead before Sebastian Prodl -- who was later sent off -- cut his side's arrears.
But with six minutes to play, Junglas finished off a swift counter-attack to restore the two-goal lead and book Bielefeld's spot in the last-eight of the German Cup.
Following the upset in Bielefeld, all eyes were on Borussia Mönchengladbach who took out the lowest-ranked team in the competition, Kickers Offenbach, of the fourth-tier, 2-0 on Wednesday night.
Offenbach hold German Cup heritage of their own with a win in 1970 and packed out their compact ground for the arrival of Lucien Favre's Foals. Champions League-chasing Gladbach has continued to pick up wins despite not being at their best and this pattern would continue in the German Cup.
Five minutes after the break, Kickers forward Markus Müller was penalized for a handball inside the box. The ever reliable Max Kruse stepped up from the penalty spot and managed to squeeze the kick inside the post.
With Offenbach on the ascendency late in the match, Gladbach struck at the vital time to make sure of their spot in the next round.
Winger Patrick Herrmann sprinted through on the break in the 83rd minute and blasted the ball home from a tight angle.
