Top-flight teams progress into German Cup quarterfinals

Leverkusen, Dortmund, Hoffenheim and Freiburg progressed into the next round of the German Cup, following the first part of the last 16 on Tuesday.

Last years finalists Borussia Dortmund eliminated third division club Dresden by courtesy of Ciro Immobile's second half brace.

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

Dresden staged a well-positioned defense therefore 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 final score.

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

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 meters into the top right corner.

Kaiserslautern wobbled and Leverkusen capitalized 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 at 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 quarterfinals.

Aalen started highly motivated into the encounter giving the visitors from Hoffenheim a difficult time. However, Hoffenheim utilized their first chance to open the scoring at 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. Thus, Hoffenheim clinically made the game safe at the 56th minute when Kevin 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 at the 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 on the scoreboards.

For the 7th time in the club's history Freiburg advance into the quarterfinals meanwhile Cologne got eliminated for the fourth time in row in the last 16.

The following fixtures will complete the round of the last 16 on Wednesday: second division side Leipzig host Wolfsburg, Bielefeld face Bremen, Offenbach clash Monchengladbach and defending champions Bayern see Braunschweig. Endi