FC St. Pauli

Head coach Fabian Hürzeler made three changes to the side that started in the derby on Friday. Sascha Burchert, who kept goal in the first two rounds of the competition, returned between the posts, while Lars Ritzka and Etienne Amenyido came in for Manolis Saliakas and Elias Saad.

The Hürzeler XI spent the opening quarter of an hour searching for a way through the packed Homburg defence, but the home side also looked to get forward whenever the opportunity presented itself. The first chance of the game fell to the Boys in Brown in the 12^th minute when Marcel Hartel directed a header towards goal, but Homburg keeper Tom Kretzschmar gathered safely.

As the half wore on, the Hürzeler XI began to dominate the possession and continued to press. And so it came as no surprise when they took the lead on 24 minutes though Hauke Wahl, who was perfectly placed at the back post from a corner and netted with a clinical finish. Just four minutes later the scores were level, however. A backpass to Burchert took a huge bobble over the keeper's foot, allowing Homburg captain Markus Mendler to nip in and score.

Though the Boys in Brown looked unruffled by the setback, they were unable to create any further chances of note before the half-time break faced with a solid Homburg rearguard. The same went for the home side, for all their probing.

Hauke Wahl celebrates after opening the scoring.

Hürzeler made two changes at half-time, introducing Elias Saad and Manoli Saliakas for Etienne Amenyido and Lars Ritzka, who was on a yellow. His side seized the initiative right away but struggled to unlock the compact Homburg rearguard. Whenever they did pass their way through to the penalty box, they were thwarted either by Kretzschmar in the Homburg goal or a defender.

The breakthrough finally came in the 64^th minute when Eric Smith knocked a beautiful cross in behind the defence, where Philipp Treu, Johannes Eggestein and Elias Saad were all lurking, and the latter latched onto the ball and took it round the keeper to net. There was more to come. Just five minutes later, Marcel Hartel thrashed a shot into the top-left corner from just outside the area. And a quarter of an hour after that, Johannes Eggestein put the game to bed with a crisp low drive after Hartel had done brilliantly to win possession.

An impressive showing after the break, then, saw the Hürzeler XI into the quarter-final. The draw for the next round will take place from 19.15 CET on Sunday evening.

FC 08 Homburg

Kretzschmar - von Piechowski, Kirchhoff, Heilig - Steinmetz, Weihrauch, Jansen, Dombrowka (Schmidt 77') - Hoffmann (Eisele 77'), Harres (Hummel 83'), Mendler (C) (Stavridis 58')

Head coach: Danny Schwarz

FC St. Pauli

Burchert - Wahl, Smith, Mets - Treu, Irvine (C) (Boukhalfa 85'), Hartel, Ritzka (Saliakas 46') - Metcalfe (Afolayan 60'), Eggestein (Maurides 80'), Amenyido (Saad 46')

Head coach: Fabian Hürzeler

Goals: 0-1 Wahl (24'), 1-1 Mendler (28'), 1-2 Saad (64'), 1-3 Hartel (69'), 1-4 Eggestein (73')

Yellow cards: Eisele –  Smith, Ritzka, Saad

Referee: Martin Petersen (Stuttgart)

Attendance: 12,232

Photos: Witters