With the exception of the injured Tamas Hajnal, who was replaced by Christian Gentner, VfB coach Bruno Labbadia trusted in the same side that drew 1-1 with Werder Bremen last weekend. The early phase saw both sides seeking their rhythm, which led to the first attempt on goal taking until the 14th minute. Martin Harnik laid a pass back to Shinji Okazaki, but the Japanese international’s effort was blocked. It was FCK who were to land the first strike of the game though. Oliver Krach was given too much room to measure his delivery from the right and in the middle, Srdjan Lakic rose high to power his header home to make it 1-0 for the visitors.

VfB quickly shook off the shock and began to press in search of an equaliser. In the 25th minute, Cristian Molinaro was judged to have been fouled by Kirch in the penalty area and referee Deniz Aytekin duly awarded VfB a penalty. Zdravko Kuzmanovic confidently grabbed the ball and drove his shot powerfully into the bottom left corner to level the scores. Until the 39th minute there was little action, but then, Kuzmanovic sent Molinaro on his way down the left with a wonderful pass. The Italian international broke to the by-line before driving the ball across the face of Kevin Trapp’s goal, where Pavel Pogrebnyak came steaming in true goal-poacher’s fashion, to give VfB a 2-1 lead, which they took into the break.

Srdan Lakic turns the tie
 
The second half began with an excellent volley from Okazaki, which FCK keeper Trapp managed to turn away for a corner. The side from the Pfalz region needed until the 55th minute before they first got sight of the VfB goal again. The effort by substitute Stiven Rivic from 14 meters out was blocked by a combination of Georg Niedermeier and Cristian Molinaro. Shortly after, Lakic had a chance to equalize, but the front man’s effort went narrowly wide of the post. In the 68th minute, the visitors finally managed to level the scores again as Christian Tiffert played a well weighted ball through for substitute Erwin Hoffer to flick over the advancing Ulreich – 2-2. Ten minutes later, the home side suffered their next set-back. A corner from Tiffert was met by Lakic powering in to head his side into a 3-2 lead.