VfL Wolfsburg’s Daniel Caligiuri (L) and Nicklas Bendtner celebrate Bendtner’s goal against third division Stuttgarter Kickers during their German Cup (DFB Pokal) first round match in Stuttgart
yesterday.
DPA/Berlin
There were few surprises in the first round of the German Cup yesterday with holders VfL Wolfsburg and the other Bundesliga sides in action all progressing.
Wolfsburg enjoyed a comfortable 4-1 victory over third division side Stuttgarter Kickers. Max Kruse, Bas Dost and Kevin De Bruyne put Wolfsburg in control and although Lhadji Badiane pulled one back 11 minutes from time, Nicklas Bendtner restored the Bundesliga side’s three-goal cushion with four minutes remaining.
Schalke 04 crushed MSV Duisburg 5-0 thanks to goals from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Matija Nastasic, Johannes Geis, Franco di Santo and Leon Goretzka. Di Santo could even afford to miss a first-half penalty for Schalke.
Anthony Modeste netted a hat-trick for Cologne as the western German club beat SV Meppen 4-0 with the fourth division side finishing the game with 10 men following the dismissal of goalkeeper Benjamin Gommert. Simon Zoller also got on the scoresheet for Cologne.
Eintracht Frankfurt enjoyed an easy 3-0 win at Bremer SV with new signing Luc Castaignos opening the scoring while Bayer Leverkusen also progressed, winning by the same scoreline at Sportfreunde Lotte.
Werder Bremen, by contrast, needed extra time to overcome third-division side Wuerzburger Kickers after the match remained scoreless at the end of regulation time. However, goals from Anthony Ujah and Fin Bartels in each half of extra time ensured a 2-0 win.
Second division sides Union Berlin and Greuther Fuerth both crashed out, Union losing 2-1 against Viktoria Cologne while Fuerth went down 1-0 to Erzgebirge Aue. Eintracht Braunschweig beat Hallescher FC 1-0.
On Friday, BFC Dynamo went down 2-0 to FSV Frankfurt Darmstadt 98 defeated TuS Erndtebrueck) 5-0 and Augsburg beat SV Elversberg following extra time.