Pokal round-up: Paderborn shock Freiburg, Leverkusen mount convincing late win
The DFB Pokal's last day of second round fixtures began with several top-flight clubs facing lower league teams. Paderborn brought us a shock comfortable victory over Freiburg whilst Leverkusen beat Sandhausen in a game with seven goals.
| Freiburg coach Christian Streich. |
Paderborn started strongly early on and in the 4th minute scored through attacking midfield player Filip Biljia who scored with a bottom right corner finish past Florian Müller from a Florent Muslija assist.
No longer than 30 minutes later, Florent Muslija scored with a wonder free-kick into the top-right corner taking his goal contribution tally to two. On the other side of the half, Filip Biljia turned from provider to scorer to make it 3-0 with a close range strike.
Freiburg, despite struggling in this game, attempted to mount a comeback with multiple saves coming from Boevink who stopped Ritsu Doan's and Nicolas Höfler's shots. One more goal was still to fall in Freiburg's favour in the tie thanks to a Maximilian Eggestein shot high into the centre of the goal which meant Boevink was eventually beaten. To finish the game, Paderborn keeper Pelle Boevink remained a key player by saving a very close range header from Lucas Höler to make sure the game finished 3-1.
Sandhausen 2 - 5 Leverkusen
Starting where they left off in their last cup game, Leverkusen took the lead early on thanks to an Alexander Fuchs foul which brought down Amine Adli. Exequiel Palacios then calmly dispatched the penalty into the bottom left corner and Leverkusen looked to sail through the game.
However, Sandhausen fought back in the second half with a right footed outside of the box strike from Christoph Ehlich who beat the Leverkusen goalkeeper Matej Kovar who came in for Lukas Hradecky as the dedicated DFB Pokal first choice. Just minutes later, despite the apparent comeback, Jonathan Tah headed his first cup goal in the bottom left corner as a result of a cleverly undertaken set-piece. Sandhausen showed their fighting spirit one more time with a response only 2 minutes later to equalise the game with a goal from Yassin Ben Balla as a result of an Abu-Bekir Ömer El-Zein cross from the corner.
Leverkusen retook the lead in late fashion with an Adam Hložek close range strike and then came close to a fourth in the 91st minute by hitting the bar from an Alex Grimaldo wonder free-kick. Shortly after this attempt they finally put the game to bed with an Amine Adli brace within 2 minutes with a header and a bottom corner finish.