Leverkusen and Leipzig reach third round of German Cup as Dortmund faces a stern test

LEVERKUSEN, Germany (AP) - Last season’s German Cup winner Bayer Leverkusen cruised into the third round with a 3-0 win over second-tier Elversberg on Tuesday, while Leipzig held off a St. Pauli comeback.

Patrik Schick scored twice in the first nine minutes and Aleix Garcia converted a free kick for his first goal since joining Leverkusen from Girona for this season.

Leipzig beat St. Pauli 4-2 to avoid a repeat of last season’s second-round exit when it was the two-time defending champion in the cup.

Leipzig had a 3-1 lead after 30 minutes but St. Pauli got back into the game with Eric Smith’s lob in the 58th and was pushing to level the score. The 19-year-old Norway winger Antonio Nusa dribbled past two defenders and scored Leipzig’s fourth to secure the win.

Augsburg beat second-division Schalke 3-0 to reach the third round for the first time since 2018-19. The lowest-ranked team left in the competition, fourth-tier Kickers Offenbach, was beaten 2-0 by second-division Karlsruhe.

Later Tuesday, Borussia Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin is under pressure as his team aims to end a run of four losses in away games when it takes on Wolfsburg. Stuttgart hosts Kaiserslautern.

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