Leverkusen cruise into second round, Hoffenheim need penalties

BERLIN (Reuters) - Bayer Leverkusen scored six goals in the opening 32 minutes to crush fourth tier club Norderstedt 7-0 in the German Cup first round on Sunday but fellow Bundesliga club Hoffenheim needed penalties to edge past amateurs Chemnitz.

Leverkusen, who sold attacking midfielder Kai Havertz and striker Kevin Volland in the close season, were missing none of their firepower as they scored three times in the opening 12 minutes through Lars Bender, Nadiem Amiri and Lucas Alario.

Another three goals between the 21st to the 32nd minute quickly ended proceedings at the empty BayArena stadium, after the official home team, Norderstedt, had relinquished the home advantage for this round.

New Leverkusen striker Patrick Schick, who came on as a substitute, grabbed goal number seven in the 77th to complete the rout.

Hoffenheim were in control for much of the game but had to wait until the 48th minute to take the lead through Andrej Kramaric's tap-in.

Kevin Freiberger's fine turn and shot from eight metres out brought the hosts level on the hour and sent the game into extra time before a Christian Bickel strike put them in the driving seat.

It was again Croatian forward Kramaric who came to the rescue, earning a penalty in the 111th and keeping his cool to grab the equaliser.

Hoffenheim keeper Oliver Baumann saved the two first penalties in the subsequent shootout and Bickel missed the target with his spot kick to give Hoffenheim coach Sebastian Hoeness a winning debut.

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Pritha Sarkar)