Harry Kane scored twice as Bayern Munich racked up its 14th straight win in one of soccer's best-ever starts to a season after overcoming a rare setback to beat Cologne 4-1 in the German Cup on Wednesday.
Vincent Kompany's team has won every game it has played in the Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League so far in 2025-26, and the win over Cologne surpassed a historic mark of 13 wins in all competitions set by AC Milan at the start of its 1992-93 campaign.
Bayern did it despite falling behind in a game for the first time since July as Ragnar Ache's 31st-minute header put Cologne ahead.
Bayern turned it around with two goals in two minutes, first for Luis Diaz — who seemed clearly offside, though there's no video review until later in the competition — and then Kane, with an acrobatic turn and shot over the keeper in the 38th.
Kane extended Bayern's lead with a header at a corner, his 22nd goal for Bayern in 14 games this season, and Díaz set up Michael Olise to score Bayern's fourth on a counter soon after.
Bayer Leverkusen scored twice in the final minutes of extra time to win a thrilling game 4-2 over second-division Paderborn and book a spot in the third round.
Leverkusen avoided another embarrassing cup exit after its semifinal loss to a third-tier team last season, but it was another shaky defensive performance from a Leverkusen team that lost 7-2 to Paris Saint-Germain last week.
The game was a festival of late goals as Paderborn's Stefano Marino headed his 10-man team level at 1-1 in the 90th minute to force extra time. Paderborn briefly led in extra time through Sven Michel's goal, only for former Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah to level for Leverkusen.
With a penalty shootout looming, Ibrahim Maza showed fancy footwork to score a crucial goal in the second minute added on to the second half of extra time. After Paderborn's goalkeeper joined the attack, Aleix Garcia scored into the empty net to seal Leverkusen's win.
In other games, defending German Cup champion Stuttgart beat Mainz for the second time in three days with a 2-0 win to reach the third round. Stuttgart also beat Mainz 2-1 in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
Union Berlin needed extra time to beat last season’s runner-up Arminia Bielefeld 2-1.
The lowest-ranked team left in the competition, fourth-tier Illertissen, was beaten 3-0 by second-tier Magdeburg. Kaiserslautern won 1-0 at Greuther Fürth, who had a player sent off four minutes after coming off the bench. Freiburg beat second-tier Fortuna Duesseldorf 3-1. Darmstadt beat Schalke 4-0.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Murder for Two Read moreMurder For Two
Dirk van Ulden said:
Rick Bonilla said:
Hey Terry, I thought your favorite smaller government. What’s up with this? You are starting to sound like a Democrat.
Rick Bonilla said:
Dirk van Ulden said:
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