Leverkusen knock Dortmund out of German Cup
Bayer Leverkusen's players celebrate at the end of the German Cup (DFB-Pokal) round of 16 football match between Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen in Dortmund, western Germany on December 2, 2025. (Photo by INA FASSBENDER / AFP)
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Bayer Leverkusen knocked Borussia Dortmund out in the last
16 of the German Cup, Ibrahim Maza scoring the only goal in a 1-0 away win on
Tuesday.
Maza's 34th-minute strike put the 2024 cup winners on track
for victory and exact instant revenge on Dortmund, who beat them 2-1 in their
own backyard in the Bundesliga three days ago.
The goal was: "a
bit of instinct and a bit of luck too, but that's part of it -- that's normal
in football," Maza told Sky Germany.
Leverkusen will be joined in the quarter-finals by RB
Leipzig, who beat Magdeburg 3-1 at home, along with Hertha Berlin and St Pauli,
who won earlier on Tuesday.
Forlorn Dortmund defender Waldemar Anton told Sky Germany
his side would "need a day or two to process" the "incredibly
brutal" defeat, adding "we set ourselves high goals and we wanted to
win this competition."
Bundesliga heavyweights Dortmund and Leverkusen had met 109
times in all competitions dating back to the early 1950s but had never faced
off in the German Cup.
Dortmund had an early penalty shout waved away when former
Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah held Carney Chukwuemeka inside the box.
A goalscorer in Leverkusen's shock 2-0 Champions League win
at Manchester City, the 20-year-old Maza danced through some sleepy Dortmund
defence to blast his side in front.
Leverkusen netted again on the hour mark through Martin
Terrier in a move started by Maza, but the strike was chalked off for a narrow
offside.
Dortmund's Karim Adeyemi had a chance to level deep into
stoppage time, but he headed inches wide of the post.
Elsewhere, Christoph Baumgartner scored twice as RB Leipzig
came from a goal down to beat lowly Magdeburg.
Magdeburg, sitting dead last in the second division, took an
early lead through a Silas Gnaka penalty.
Leipzig hit back with a long-range rocket from Antonio Nusa
and led 2-1 at halftime after Baumgartner scored.
Assisted by Nusa, Baumgartner scored again early in the
second-half to see the two-time cup winners through.
Earlier on Tuesday, St Pauli broke out of their recent
Bundesliga funk to win 2-1 at three-time winners Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Pauli had lost their last nine league matches but goals from
Martijn Kaars and Louis Oppie either side of a header from Gladbach's Haris
Tabakovic had the Hamburg-based side marching into the final eight.
In the German capital, Hertha Berlin thumped 2024 finalists
Kaiserslautern 6-1, with 16-year-old Kennet Eichhorn becoming the youngest
goalscorer in the competition's history.
Bayern Munich, winners a record 20 times, play at Union
Berlin on Wednesday while holders Stuttgart are away at Bochum.

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