German Cup: Bayern Munich records its 14th win in a row by beating Cologne

Harry Kane scored twice as Bayern Munich recorded their 14th straight win in one of football’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 have won every match they have played so far in the Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League in the 2025-2026 season, with the victory over Cologne surpassing the historic mark of thirteen wins in all competitions set by AC Milan at the start of the 1992-93 season.

Despite trailing in a match, Bayern did it for the first time since July when Ragnar Ache’s header in the 31st minute put Cologne ahead.

Bayern turned it around with two goals in two minutes, first for Luis Diaz – who looked clearly offside, although there won’t be a video review until later in the competition – and then Kane, with an acrobatic twist and shot over the keeper in the 38th.

Kane extended Bayern’s lead with a header from 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 shortly afterwards.

Bayer Leverkusen scored twice in the final minutes of extra time, winning a thrilling match 4-2 against second division Paderborn and booking a place in the third round.

Leverkusen avoided another embarrassing cup exit after losing in the semi-finals to a third division 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 match was a festival of late goals as Paderborn’s Stefano Marino headed his 10-man team to 1-1 in the 90th minute to force extra time. Paderborn briefly led in extra time through Sven Michel’s goal, but former Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah leveled for Leverkusen.

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With a penalty shootout looming, Ibrahim Maza showed fine footwork to score a crucial goal in the second minute added 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 victory.

In other matches, defending champions Stuttgart defeated Mainz for the second time in three days with a 2–0 win to reach the third round. Stuttgart also defeated Mainz 2-1 in the Bundesliga on Sunday.

Union Berlin needed extra time to beat Arminia Bielefeld, last season’s runners-up, 2-1.

The lowest placed team remaining in the competition, Illertissen in the fourth tier, was defeated 3–0 by Magdeburg in the second tier. Kaiserslautern won 1–0 at Greuther Fürth, who had a player sent off four minutes after coming off the bench. Freiburg defeated second-tier Fortuna Düsseldorf 3-1. Darmstadt defeated Schalke 4-0.

Published on October 30, 2025