Bayern and Leverkusen progress to DFB-Pokal final

The semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal took place this midweek which included three Bundesliga sides and one side from the Regionaliga. Here’s what happened in the two semi-finals.

On Tuesday night, Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen travelled to Regionaliga champions Saarbrucken following a 4-2 defeat to Bayern Munich on Saturday with the hosts having not played in three months. Their rustiness showed as the Bundesliga side took just 11 minutes to strike first through Moussa Diaby’s volley.

Eight minutes later saw Lucas Alario make it 2-0 to Leverkusen following a mixture of defensive errors from Saarbrucken. After that second strike, Leverkusen carried on for much of the half with high attacking intensity.

13 minutes following the restart saw Leverkusen grab a third through Karim Bellarabi who blasted the ball into the net. After that strike, Leverkusen carried on attacking for the rest of the game but carried on wasting chances. 

The victory for the visitors ended the hopes of the German fourth tier side, who had started their run to the semi-final of the DFB-Pokal back in August.

On Wednesday night, Bayern Munich hosted Eintracht Frankfurt in an all-Bundesliga semi-final tie at the Allianz Arena. Bayern having come into this off a 4-2 victory at Bayer Leverkusen whilst Frankfurt had suffered a 2-0 home defeat to Mainz.

The hosts opened the scoring after 14 minutes via an Ivan Perisic header which led to a massive dominating display by Hans-Dieter Flick’s men for the rest of the half. A mixture of Bayern’s failure to convert and also the display by the Frankfurt defence kept the scoreline at just 1-0 for the rest of the half.

In the second half, Frankfurt looked rejuvenated and cut out some great opportunities which eventually led to a 69th minute equaliser by substitute Danny da Costa. Unfortunately for the visitors, their efforts were undone through Robert Lewandowski’s close strike five minutes later following a pass by Joshua Kimmich which was originally ruled out by the referee for offside but then awarded by VAR.

The victory over Frankfurt means that Bayern will take on Bayer Leverkusen in an all-Bundesliga final at the Olympic Stadium, Berlin on Saturday 4th July.

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