Friday, January 28, 2011

Bayern beats Aachen to reach cup semi-finals


BERLIN (AP): Thomas Mueller scored twice Wednesday to help send Bayern Munich into the semifinals of the German Cup with a 4-0 away win over second-division side Aachen.
Second-tier clubs Cottbus and Duisberg also progressed, with home wins over Bundesliga sides Hoffenheim and Kaiserslautern respectively.
Mario Gomez opened the scoring for Bayern in the 26th minute, when he was left unmarked to head in a perfect cross from Gustavo Luiz from the left.
Aachen were denied a penalty in the 34th when Luiz appeared to trip Benjamin Auer in the area. Television replays showed contact had been made.
Goalkeeper David Hohs stood up well to deny Gomez from adding his second a minute later, after the striker was played through by Mueller.
He had the ball in the net before the interval but the effort was ruled out for a foul on defender Tobias Feisthammel.
Hohs saved again from Gomez early in the second half after the Bundesliga's joint top scorer played a neat one-two with Mueller to leave three Aachen defenders watching.
Aachen pressed forward for an equaliser and Thomas Kraft denied the home side with two outstanding saves in quick succession with half an hour remaining.
Mueller made the game safe by rounding off a classic counterattacking move in the 75th.
Arjen Robben - brought on as a substitute three minutes before - found Mueller in space with a crossfield pass, and the 21-year-old eluded the challenge of Aimen Demai before slotting the ball between the legs of Hohs.
The German international added his second five minutes later, when his shot took a deflection past the helpless goalkeeper. Robben rounded off the rout in the 88th when he was set up by Bastian Schweinsteiger to finish from close range.
"There was a time in the second half when we were under pressure," said Robben, still recovering from a cold. "It was 4-0 but it was more difficult than that."
It was Bayern's first game since captain Mark van Bommel's switch to AC Milan. "The referee could have given a penalty in the first half," said Auer, the Aachen captain. "Who knows what would have happened?"
Substitute Jiayi Shao scored a late winner to earn Cottbus a 1-0 win over Hoffenheim. The China international - brought on in the 66th minute - blasted the ball past goalkeeper Tom Starke in the 84th, after Jules Reimerink beat three defenders and found him in the area with a precision pass.
"We played well and had a little luck," said Shao. Ryan Babel made his Hoffenheim debut after switching from Liverpool on Tuesday.
Duisberg defender Branimir Bajic stretched his leg to score from close range in the 36th, when Kaiserslautern goalkeeper Tobias Sippel failed to clear a Benjamin Kern corner and Stefan Maierhofer headed the ball forward.
Goran Sukalo completed the win in the 58th, when he headed in Kern's long free kick from the left. Schalke progressed on Tuesday.
  

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