Quarter-final - Match report

Magath hails brave Osnabrück

The compliment was well earned. "Top-class performance," said Schalke's coach Felix Magath, congratulating his counterpart Karsten Baumann on a remarkable effort. His VfL Osnabrück side had pushed the Royal Blues to the limit in their DFB Cup quarter-final tie. But a 1-0 victory was enough to see Schalke through to the last four.

Osnabrück went into the game with the confidence of a team who had not lost at home under floodlights for three years and had already knocked Hamburg and Borussia Dortmund out of this season's cup competition. Reason enough, then, for Schalke to take a concentrated approach to the clash with the third-division side.

The Royal Blues were focused from the off, but after some initial flowing moves they struggled to fashion chances against a home side who were understandably defensive-minded. The task may have proved easier had Kuranyi not arrowed their first genuine chance narrowly wide of the post.

As a result, Osnabrück's plan of keeping the score goalless for as long as possible while waiting for the killer counterattack worked well until into the second half. Indeed, a minute before the interval Björn Lindemann went just as close as Kuranyi had before him. His shot flew over the bar.

Clear-cut chances remained a rarity after the restart, but with 59 minutes gone Kuranyi took Schalke's first genuine opportunity following some good work by Vicente Sanchez to give his side the lead. "I didn't count that many Schalke chances. The difference was luck and a Kuranyi who is in outstanding form at the moment," Osnabrück's coach Carsten Baumann said after the final whistle.

"We should have attacked their goal more, we didn't simply want to wait for the chance that would eventually come. But Osnabrück battled so well, we weren't able to," conceded Felix Magath. That said, the Royal Blues snuffed out any threat with a focused defensive performance to progress to the semi-final of the DFB Cup for the first time in five years, where they will entertain Bayern Munich, who overcame second division side Greuther Fürth 6-2.  

Osnabrück: Berbig - Herrmann (Reichenberger 86'), Nickenig, Stang, Krük (Schmidt 72') - Engel, Hansen, Pinheiro (Kotuljac 61'), Lindemann - Bencik, Siegert
Schalke: Neuer - Rafinha, Höwedes, Bordon, Schmitz - Matip -  Rakitic, Baumjohann (Moritz 46') - Farfan, Kuranyi, Sanchez (Hao 86')
Goal: 0-1 Kuranyi (59')
Attendance: 16,130 (sold out)  
Referee: Gräfe (Berlin)
Yellow cards: Bencik, Nickenig (3), Engel, Siegert (2) - Moritz, Neuer, Rakitic