Pizarro fires Bayern into German Cup semis

Germany - Peruvian international striker Claudio Pizarro scored four goals as Bayern Munich crushed 10-man SC Freiburg 7-0 on Wednesday to book a place in the semi-finals of the German Cup.

The victory keeps Bayern on course for a historic quadruple with the German powerhouse wrapping up the League Cup in pre-season, sitting joint top of the Bundesliga and going strong in the last sixteen of the Champions League after beating Arsenal 3-1 in the first leg.

Bayern edged Freiburg 1-0 in the league on Saturday but there was nothing close about this match as Felix Magath's side netted five times in the first half with Pizarro scoring three of them.

Munich are 31 points better off in the Bundesliga than relegation-threatened Freiburg and it showed as Pizarro scored twice in the first 10 minutes.

The Peruvian star completed his treble in the 39th minute curling a precise right-footed effort into the bottom corner.

After the break Bayern took their foot off the gas but Pizarro was hungry for more and netted his fourth of the match on the hour mark. German international captain Michael Ballack, back after two weeks on the sidelines, marked his return with a 27th minute strike and Dutch international Roy Makaay was also on target after 34 minutes.

On the stroke of half-time, Freiburg defender Youssef Mohamad then picked up a straight red card for tugging back Makaay and Freiburg's 10 remaining players trudged off 5-0 down at the interval.

After Pizarro's fourth goal Iranian substitute Vahid Hashemian completed the scoring in the 76th minute with a rare goal before the final whistle arrived to the delight of Freiburg's downtrodden players.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin