Highlights: Leverkusen - Düsseldorf | Semi Final | DFB-POKAL 2023/2024

Never in decades, in generations has the Bayer cross shone on a team quite like Xavi Alonso's Invincibles. Tonight Leverkusen play for a place in the DFB-Pokal final. In their way stands second tier Fortuna Dusseldorf and their coach Daniel Thieu. Leverkusen's last loss, May of last year. Since then 34 wins and five draws. Here is Grimaldo. Grimaldo's cross for Frimpong. Oh what a clearance by Emanuel Ioha for Fortuna Dusseldorf. Inside four minutes here the first bearing of Bayer teeth. Alonso's men go very close. Xhaka for Schick and now Frimpong. And Frimpong's cross on the chase now. Here is Amine Adli. The ball stays alive with Leverkusen and Adli. Florian Wiertz. Grimaldo. Xhaka in for Schick. Frimpong with a devastating finish with only seven minutes on the clock. The right wing back with a 23rd goal involvement this season. Either scored or created. Numbers which frankly blow the mind. This goal number 12 scored of a remarkable campaign for Jeremy Frimpong. If there were any nerves they're settled now. How will the team third in the second division respond? Here's Frimpong away from danger. And now to Johanneson and to Engelhardt. Now Jollies. Christos Jollies with a shot and held by Kovacs in the Leverkusen goal. Fortuna fan Campino with punk rockers Die Toten Hosen in attendance. In the Bundesliga Leverkusen hold a 13-point lead with seven games left to play. Here's Adli. Adli's cross. Away there by Siebert. And a shot over the bar by Robert Andrisch. When he scored a scorcher in the quarterfinal win here over VfB Stuttgart back in February. It stays 1-0 for now. Rimaldo taps Soba. Wiertz finds space and takes and turns. It opens up here for Leverkusen. Wiertz. On to Amine Adli. Adli still. Adli's shot. Bottom corner. Brilliant. A club record 20th cup goal of this campaign for Leverkusen. And Adli's fifth to make him the competition's top marksman in the current campaign. In transition they are deadly. Wiertz on here to Adli. And the shot drilled in for a two-goal lead. Game by game. Goal upon goal. This Leverkusen team obliterating club records with each and every passing week. Two goals up. 20 minutes in. Here is the metronome. Granit Xhaka. Jonathan Tarr. Backheel by the centre-back on the left wing. Here's Amine Adli. Adli's cross. Rimaldo. Great volley. The ball goes straight at goalkeeper Kastenmaier. Can't Fortuna live with this. Oberdorf. Siebert back to goalkeeper Florian Kastenmaier. Always pass loose. Here's Andrisch. Into Adli. Florian Wiertz. Wiertz. It's a gift of a third goal for Leverkusen. Florian Wiertz. After 36 first half minutes they are on their way to the final. No question now. We open the door to this team even by a fraction and they will break it down. Ruthless. Relentless. The mark of a champion team. In all competitions Wiertz has now scored 12 and assisted 18. It's a halftime around two minutes. Here is Yannick Engelhardt. On for Jamil Siebert. Siebert shot. A rare scare for goalkeeper Matej Kovac for Leverkusen. Ball that swirls and bends away from the target. Can they land a glove on Leverkusen here before halftime? It's the Greek Jolis. Jolis. Engelhardt. Now they go wide and the ball clipped in for Hofmann. And Kovac makes his first real save in the last minute of the first half. Captain Andre Hofmann. The player denied for Fortuna. Andrisch. Onto those dancing feet. The magical feet of Florian Wiertz. Takes on three players. Wiertz. Turned away by Kastenmaier. Here's Zsaka. Zsaka for Grimaldo. Over the bar from Grimaldo. But there you saw Wiertz in full flow. A joy to watch. So much ability on the ball. And this by Kastenmaier. A terrific save as well to ensure it stays at just three nil. A perfect half. A perfect team. Playing on three fronts. A perfect season. Florian Wiertz handed two of Leverkusen's three first half goals at the break at the Bayern Arena. Berlin is beckoning. Comes Matthias Simmermann. His ball in. And now it's Jolis. Oh what a chance for a goal back for Fortuna Düsseldorf. In the second tier no one can beat Jolis. He's 17 league goals this season. On the clock now. 57 minutes. It's Zsaka's cross. Verschack. And the ball back off the post. But was there an arm here by defender Simmermann on that header from Patrick Schick? It does hit the hand for sure. Referee Christian Dingert will go to look at the monitors here. And that normally tells a story in itself. And I think Matthias Simmermann knows what's coming here. Referee decides what. Yes. Penalty. A battle of two Florians. Kastenmaier and Wiertz. For Leverkusen. Florian Wiertz. 4-0. It's his first ever senior penalty kick would you believe. His last one came for Cologne's under-17s. The night gets better. Victor Boniface is back. The striker's first game in 105 days since mid-December. To play now six minutes. Hofmann here for Robert Andrisch. Victor Boniface. Boniface still here with him too. Frimpong. Oh good save Kastenmaier. The second half where they've maybe taken their foot off the gas a fraction. But nonetheless another chance here and a fine save. Here's Niemitz. Niemitz crossing. Vincent Vermeijs header. Held by Kovac. And the goalkeeper's clean sheet remains so in added time. Xabi Alonso's extraordinary team have reached the final. Fortuna had no answer and their fans will know their own famous run was ended by a team that whatever happens now will go down in German football history. That's 40 games across three competitions and still no one can beat them. On May the 25th in Berlin Leverkusen face another second division team Kaiserslautern to try to win the DFB-Pokal for just the second time and first time in 31 years. And they will go there as the overwhelming favorites.