David Alaba, Mario Götze lead Bayern Munich into DFB Pokal quarterfinals

Bayern Munich received goals from David Alaba and Mario Götze to advance past 2.Bundesliga side Eintracht Braunschweig 2-0 to advance to the quarterfinals of the DFB Pokal.

FCB spent the majority of the first half attacking up the left side of the field through Franck Ribery and Alaba. The dynamic duo were the only relief valve for Bayern in the first half against the pressure of Braunschweig. Yes, Bayern found themselves with around 80% of the ball for the first session, but they were really struggling to find anything to do with it.

The central midfield pairing of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Xabi Alonso continued their struggles to create scoring chances for Bayern. With Braunschweig targeting Alonso with their pressure, Schweinsteiger was forced to do nearly all of the heavy lifting in the midfield. Suffice to say that while Bayern definitely controlled the match, they weren't forcing Rafal Gikiewicz to make any effort to keep them out of the goal.

Luckily for FC Bayern, Alaba is basically a perfect footballing machine. After Robben was brought down at the top of the penalty area, the free kick responsibilities fell the boot of the Austrian. As he's apt to do, Alaba did something special. Alaba's shot struck the underside of the bar leaving Gikiewicz no chance at the save. The Bavarians celebrated the 1-0 advantage seconds before the referee whistled for halftime.

Bayern ratcheted up the pressure to start the second half and were rewarded for their efforts. Götze received a pass at the top of the Braunschweig box, tiptoed around a pair of defenders, and lashed a shot past Gikiewicz for the 2-0 lead. Götze was invisible for most of the first half with most of the attacks going through Robbery, but he made his presence known when it counted.

The match would coast to a 2-0 finale with only one true bit of aggro late in the contest. Dante came in with a late, ridiculous, two-footed challenge and was shown a yellow card for it. The Brazilian was very lucky that he wasn't shown his marching orders for the tackle.

The quarterfinal field is set for the DFB Pokal: Arminia Bielefeld, Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Freiburg, Hoffenheim, and Wolfsburg. The draw will take place on Sunday.

Bayern will take the field again this Saturday against Hannover in Bundesliga play, before returning to Munich on Wednesday for the second leg of their Champions League encounter with Shakhtar Donetsk.