Cologne become first top-flight casualties

Cologne became the first top-flight casualties in the opening round of the German Cup when they went down 3-1 at second division Kickers Offenbach yesterday.

Cologne, sitting high up in the Bundesliga table after two wins out of two, moved ahead in the 29th minute through Markus Feulner but the sending-off of Andrew Sinkala for a bad foul in the 58th minute brought the home side back into the game.

Oualid Mokhtari equalised in the 65th minute, Suat Turker scored with a penalty seven minutes later after a handball and an own goal from former Germany international Christian Rahn four minutes from time consigned Cologne to their fate.

The other first division sides in action yesterday came through with hardly a scare.

Bayer Leverkusen enjoyed an 8-0 win away to Rot-Weiss Erfurt's second team, with Danko Lazovic, newly signed from Feyenoord, helping himself to a second-half hat-trick.

Hamburg, dumped out of the Cup last season when their 4-2 defeat by SC Paderborn was fixed by referee Robert Hoyzer, finished strongly to beat third division Stuttgarter Kickers 5-1.

VfL Wolfsburg saw off this season's challenge from Paderborn with a comfortable 2-0 win and there were similarly easy victories for 2004 Cup winners Werder Bremen and Kaiserslautern.

Eintracht Frankfurt and Hanover 96 came safely through on Friday.

Holders Bayern Munich are set to launch their Cup defence against amateurs MSV 1919 Neuruppin in one of 10 games today.