Gladbach grind out win at Offenbach
Offenbach - Borussia Mönchengladbach booked their place in the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup after edging past third-tier outfit Kickers Offenbach to win 1-0 at the Sparda-Bank-Hessen-Stadion.
Gladbach went into the game on the back of a comfortable 2-0 league win against SC Paderborn at the weekend, but they were given a stern test by the fourth-tier minnows. With the playing surface largely unsuitable to the type of football Lucien Favre likes his team to play, Borussia controlled proceedings without ever really looking like scoring.
That didn’t look like changing in the opening moments of the second half, but Offenbach’s good work was undone by Markus Müller's moment of madness, the striker inexplicably handling from a corner with Max Kruse firing home the resulting spot-kick. Borussia then tightened their grip on proceedings, and after Patrick Herrmann diverted a cross over the top, he then made no mistake by crashing in a near-post shot to kill the home side’s challenge off once and for all.
Line-ups:
Offenbach: Endres - Vetter, Modica, Maier, Mangafic - Gjasula - Röser (Korb, 72’), Schwarz, Pintol, Cappek - Müller (Bäcker, 64’)
Gladbach: Sommer - Jantschke, Stranzl, Brouwers, Wendt - Herrmann, Kramer, Xhaka (Nordtveit, 87’), Hahn (Johnson, 74’) - Hazard (Hrgota, 90’) - Kruse
Goals: 0-1 Kruse (pen, 57’), 0-2 Herrmann (83’)
