With to a goal from Timo Werner in the first half, Leipzig advanced to the semifinals along with Freiburg, Eintracht Frankfurt, and Stuttgart.
On Wednesday, defending champion Leipzig defeated Borussia Dortmund 2-0 to advance to the German Cup semifinals.
Due to goals by Timo Werner in the first half and Willi Orbán in stoppage time, Leipzig joined Freiburg, Eintracht Frankfurt, and Stuttgart in the semifinals. For its first significant title, Leipzig overcame Freiburg in the final the previous year.
After dropping its previous three games in all competitions, Leipzig, under the direction of former Dortmund coach Marco Rose, dominated from the opening kickoff.
Julian Brandt of Dortmund commented, “Today, we didn’t deserve to win the game.We were quite fortunate to make it through the opening ten minutes without giving up a goal.
Early on, the visitors could only thank Gregor Kobel for holding Leipzig at bay, but in the 22nd minute, Mohamed Simakan outran Mats Hummels and crossed for Werner to guide the ball inside the left post. Simakan’s quickness was the deciding factor when playing against Dortmund’s sluggish defence.
Later, when Werner had just Kobel to beat, he ought to have made it 2-0, but the Leipzig forward chose to cross for Konrad Laimer rather than attempt a goal, squandering the opportunity. For Leipzig, who had 14 attempts at goal compared to the visitors’ one in the first half alone, it was one of many squandered opportunities.
While the visitors got better in the second half, Dortmund coach Edin Terzi substituted Youssoufa Moukoko, but ultimately Leipzig had the better chances to clinch the victory. In the 78th, Kobel stopped Laimer.
The lone goal-bound attempt by Dortmund came in stoppage time, when Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, a replacement, was stopped by a great save from Janis Blaswich.
The visitors urgently attempted to equalise as Kobel advanced for a free kick, but Orbán finished the game by securing the victory with a counterattack.
Dortmund, which defeated Leipzig in the 2021 championship game, was without injured players Nico Schlotterbeck of Germany and Sébastien Haller of the Ivory Coast. Karim Adeyemi was suspended, so Jude Bellingham started the game on the bench of replacements.
Earlier, Sebastian Hoeness’ first game as Stuttgart’s head coach resulted in a 1-0 victory for Stuttgart at second-division team Nuremberg.
Bayern Munich was eliminated by Freiburg on Tuesday. On Sunday, the semifinal bracket will be drawn.
