Top-flight teams progress into German Cup quarters

Bundesliga football clubs Leverkusen, Dortmund, Hoffenheim and Freiburg have progressed into the German Cup quarterfinals.

Last years finalists Borussia Dortmund eliminated third division club Dresden by courtesy of Ciro Immobile's second-half brace on Tuesday, reports Xinhua.

The hosts nearly drove Dortmund to desperation in the first half but a misplaced pass by Dresden's Michael Hefele, in his own half, allowed Immobile to slot home the lead with just goalkeeper Patrick Wiegers to beat in the 50th minute.

Dresden staged a well-positioned defence and Dortmund had to wait until the closing period to seal the deal. Immobile made use of a square pass by Jakub Blaszczykowski to tap in the 2-0 lead.

With the 100th victory in the German Cup, Dortmund progressed for the fourth straight time into the quarters.

Leverkusen craved out a hard earned 2-0 victory in overtime against second division team Kaiserslautern. The 'Werkself' needed 102 minutes to overcome Kaiserslautern's bulwark. It was Hakan Calhanoglu who broke the deadlock by curling a free kick from 25 metres into the top-right corner.

Kaiserslautern wobbled and Leverkusen capitalised on a moment of madness by goalkeeper Marius Mueller, who underestimated a return pass by his teammate Willi Orban, allowing Stefan Kiessling to kill the game with the 2-0 lead into the open goal in the 114th minute.

With the 2-0 overtime victory, Leverkusen took revenge on Kaiserslautern for their last year's exit.

Clinical Hoffenheim beat resilient second division side Aalen 2-0 to progress into the quarter-finals.

Aalen started highly motivated into the encounter giving the visitors from Hoffenheim a difficult time. However, Hoffenheim utilised their first chance to open the scoring in the 15th minute. Eugen Polanski slotted home Kevin Volland's deflected cross into the bottom-left corner.

Aalen remained unimpressed and continued to give the visitors a hard-fight, yet they failed to convert their opportunities. Hoffenheim clinically made the game safe in the 56th minute when Volland tapped in into the near post corner following a through ball by Sven Schipplock.

In the only encounter of two Bundesliga clubs, Freiburg wrapped up the better end as they overpowered Cologne 2-1. Cologne's Anthony Ujah opened the scoring for the hosts when he accidentally headed home a corner-kick by Freiburg's Jonathan Schmid (17th minute).

Freiburg kept it bowling and doubled the lead through Vladimir Darida, who completed a combination via Maximilian Philipp two minutes later.

After the restart, Cologne piled on the pressure but they were only able to reduce the arrears in the closing period as Deyverson made it 2-1.

For the seventh time in the club's history, Freiburg advance to the quarters while Cologne were eliminated for the fourth time in row in the last 16.