Giant-killers Saarbrucken defeat Gladbach to reach German Cup semis
SAARBRUCKEN: Third-division Saarbrucken’s German Cup fairytale continued on Tuesday with a 2-1 win over Borussia Monchengladbach in their rain-delayed quarter-final.
Kai Brunker scored on a counteratack in stoppage time for Saarbrucken to knock out yet another Bundesliga team ater a sensational second-round win over Bayern Munich and third-round victory over Eintracht Frankfurt.
“Just crazy, I’m mega-happy,” Brunker said as team-mates and fans celebrated around him. “Mentality-monsters, I’m so ridiculously proud of every single one. Look at their faces!”
The third-tier team now goes onto the semifinals against second-division Kaiserslautern on
April 3. Bayer Leverkusen, the only Bundesliga team remaininginthisseason’scompetition,playsfortuna Düsseldorf in the other semi-final the next day.
Tuesday’s match was originally scheduled for Feb. 7, when it was rained off ater the field became waterlogged and unplayable.
New grass had been laid in the intervening five weeks, but heavy rain poured down again before kickoff and the surface was far from ideal. The field gave way to clumps that stewards tried vainly to pat down before the match and during haltime. Players also tried pating down the wayward clumps during the match.
Gladbach struck first with Robin Hack finishing off a counteratack in the eighth-minute, only for Amine Naifi to reply three minutes later for the home team.
Gladbach pushed harder for the breakthrough in the second half as the rain continued to fall, then Saarbruckendefenderfabiodimichelesanchezset off on a run down the let and crossed for Brünker to fire the winner inside the let post in the third minute of stoppage time.