Japan star Shinji Kagawa netted as Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund reached the German Cup soccer semi-finals with a 4-0 win at fourth-division Holstein Kiel on Tuesday.
Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp started with Australian reserve goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak in a near first-choice side which had few problems in the quarter-final as the guests raced to a 2-0 lead after less than 20 minutes.
Polish striker Robert Lewandowski put the visitors ahead at Kiel’s Holstein Stadion ground in front of a sell-out 11,000 crowd when he reacted fastest to an overhead kick from Ivan Perisic to score in the 11th minute.
Kagawa doubled the lead seven minutes later when he took a great diagonal pass from Polish midfielder Lukasz Piszczek and slammed the ball into the top left-hand corner from the edge of the penalty area.
In sub-zero temperatures, Dortmund were rarely tested by the minnows who had knocked top-flight Mainz out in the previous round and also beaten second division Duisburg and Energie Cottbus on the way to the last eight.
Just as he did in last Friday’s 2-0 German league win at Nuremberg, Paraguayan striker Lucas Barrios came off the bench midway through the second half and scored Dortmund’s third in the 80th minute.
Perisic, who provided the final pass for Lewandowski and Barrios to score, was rewarded for his efforts with the final goal on 87 minutes when he beat the defence from a corner.
Klopp admitted he was far from happy the German league leaders had to play in sub-zero temperatures in their quarter-final.
“It was like ice hockey on grass,” fumed Klopp as the live-screened match went ahead even though the pitch was partly frozen amid temperatures of -18C.
“The pitch was unplayable but there was pressure from TV not to cancel the game.
“I was so tense that it was easy to fire up my players as if they were playing in a World Cup final.
“There was a great danger the players were going to get hurt.”
In the remaining quarter-finals to be played on Wednesday, Bayern Munich are at VfB Stuttgart, Borussia Moenchengladbach – who eliminated holders Schalke 04 in the previous round – play at Hertha Berlin and second-division Greuther Fuerth are at Hoffenheim.
The semi-finals will be held on March 20 and 21, with the final to be held at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on May 12.