Werder and Gladbach play out cup-classic

Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-4 Werder Bremen
(Stindl 32‘, Hrgota 73‘ – Sternberg 52‘, Vestergaard 58‘, Pizarro 75‘, Ujah 78‘)

Heading into the game, on the back of consecutive defeats for the first time under Andre Schubert, Borussia Mönchengladbach were looking to overcome the struggling Werder Bremen, who had only managed one win in six games themselves.

Lars Stindl put the Foals on the right track, opening the scoring just after the half-hour mark. Thorgan Hazard found Stindl running into the box and the forward tucked away past Felix Wiedwald with ease. That’s how the score remained until half-time. But the second half was 45 minutes of cup-magic to remember at the Borussia-Park.

Seven minutes into the second period and Werder drew level. Jannik Sternberg’s low-drive wrong-footed Yann Sommer and gave the away side a second-wind. Six minutes later and the game had been turned around through Jannik Vestergaard, who was fastest to the ball following Florian Grillitsch’s free-kick which rebounded off the post.

More goals were coming, and they arrived with less than twenty minutes to play. First, substitute Branimir Hrgota found an equalizer as he finished superbly past Wiedwald on a counter-attack. Two minutes later, though, and the game once again took a turn. Veteran striker Claudio Pizarro found the net – his thirtieth goal in 51 German Cup matches – to give Werder the lead for a second time.

A sixth goal was minutes away, and arrived with 12 minutes left in the match, as Anthony Ujah got in on the act with a deflected goal past Sommer. The win is Werder’s first in six, and hands Borussia Mönchengladbach a third consecutive defeat in all competitions, while sending Viktor Skripnik's side into the quarter finals.

Unterhaching 1-3 Bayer Leverkusen
(Bauer 27’ – Hernandez 31’, Kießling 55‘, Bellarabi 83‘)

15 years on from the nightmare Bayer Leverkusen fans will never forget, Unterhaching hosted Leverkusen once again, looking to score yet another upset against the Bundesliga side.

In the 2-0 home win in 2000, which deprived Leverkusen of a Bundesliga title, Michael Ballack scored a memorable own-goal which has since been remembered as his career-low moment. There was no sign of Ballack in the Bavarian town, but an upset was on the cards with 27 mintues played.

20-year old Maximilian Bauer opened the scoring for the home side with his first ever professional goal – one he’ll certainly remember. But with Stefan Kießling and Javier Hernandez in such fine form, it seemed inevitable that one of the pair would find the net. And so ‘Chicharito’ did, just four minutes later.

The score remained level until 10 minutes into the second half when Kießling, who had assisted Hernandez’s equalizer, got on the score-sheet himself. The goal meant that between them, Hernandez and Kießling had scored seven goals and assisted three in their last two games.

The task always looked too much for Unterhaching, who were reduced to ten-men after Ulrich Taffertshofer was shown a second-yellow card. Karim Bellarabi secured the 3-1 win in the final ten minutes to send Leverkusen into the quarter-finals.

Bayern and Heidenheim cruise through

It was a simple night for Bayern Munich and Heidenheim, who beat Darmstadt and Erzgebirge Aue respectively to progress to the German Cup quarter finals.

Xabi Alonso scored the only goal of the game at the Allianz Arena - which failed to sell-out for the first time in over two years - with a sensational volley from all of 30-yards out. In Aue, two second half goals from Arne Feick and Marc Schnatterer earned second-division Heidenheim a comfortable win over their fourth-division opponents.

German Cup round of 16:

Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-4 Werder Bremen (Tuesday)

Unterhaching 1-3 Bayer Leverkusen

Bayern Munich 1-0 Darmstadt

Erzgebirge Aue 0-2 Heidenheim

Stuttgart vs. Braunschweig (Wednesday)

Nürnberg vs. Hertha BSC

Augsburg vs. Borussia Dortmund

1860 Munich vs. Bochum