Pizarro pounces to take Bremen through

Claudio Pizarro struck ten minutes from time to inflict a 2-1 home defeat on BV Borussia Dortmund and send Werder Bremen into the last eight of the German Cup while Bayer 04 Leverkusen also progressed from an all-Bundesliga tie.

Almeida equaliser
Dortmund, beaten finalists last season, sit two places and three points ahead of Bremen in the Bundesliga table and the tie seemed to be going with form when Alexander Frei, the Swiss international, put the hosts ahead after eleven minutes. Dortmund held the lead until just past the hour when Hugo Almeida levelled and just as it looked like extra time and possibly penalties maybe required to separate the teams, Piazrro intervened.

First-half goals
Leverkusen defeated FC Energie Cottbus 3-1 at the BayArena, where all the hosts' goals came in the first half. Patrick Helmes gave Leverkusen the perfect start after only 12 minutes with further strikes coming from Michal Kadlec (29) and Renato Augusto (43). Ervin Skela struck Energie's consolation in added time.

Hat-trick
Elsewhere, Grafite scored a hat-trick in a 5-1 win for VfL Wolfsburg at home to FC Hansa Rostock, while the shock of the night was provided by 2. Bundesliga outfit SV Wehen-Wiesbaden, who won 1-0 at Karlsruher SC.