German Cup roundup: Dortmund leave it late again

In the first round of the German Cup, Marco Reus saved Dortmund's blushes against Fürth with a 120th minute strike. He repeated the trick on Wednesday, this time from the spot, to book BVB a berth in the last 16.

Union Berlin took the Bundesliga leaders to penalties last season and looked set to do it again at Signal Iduna Park before the skipper's intervention. These were the only two professional sides unbeaten in Germany before the match and a much-changed Dortmund took the lead just before the break through Christian Pulisic. 

Sebastian Polter equalized for the capital city club after the break and, after Maximilian Philipp restored the hosts' lead, the striker took the tie to extra-time with a last minute header. But Reus had the last word after Pulisic was fouled.

Schalke survive

Dortmund will be joined in the hat by Ruhr rivals Schalke, who squeezed past second tier Cologne on penalties, while Werder Bremen and Nuremberg made it a clean sweep of Bundesliga wins in the early fixtures, the latter on penalties.

Later on, Bayer Leverkusen made it 11 goals in two games with an impressive 5-0 away win over Borussia Mönchengladbach.

The Werkself's goals came through Julian Brandt, Tin Jedvaj, Karim Bellarabi (who scored twice) and Kevin Volland.

Timo Werner came off the bench at halftime to score a six minute brace that sent RB Leipzig through and sent their future boss Julian Naglesmann crashing out of the competition.

Freiburg were the only top flight side to lose to a team from a lower league. Christian Streich's men took a lead 41 seconds in through Nils Petersen before Janni Luca Serra and David Kinsombi scored either side of the break for Holstein Kiel.

Strugglers Duisburg were the other second tier side to progress on Wednesday, with strikes from John Verhoek, Fabian Schnellhardt and Cauly Oliveira Souza wrapping up a 3-0 win before the break.

The draw for the last 16 is on Sunday.