Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Simon Rolfes has admitted that his side had to ride their luck to beat Freiburg and move into the quarter-finals of the DFB-Pokal.

Despite taking a first-minute lead, Bayer were pegged back and almost went behind before Emre Can's eventual winner with just over 10 minutes left.

"That was a very tough fight, which we were not expecting after the first few minutes," the club's captain told Bundesliga.de.

"We are wasteful with the chances we created, then Freiburg came at us really strongly and could have won."

Bayer have reached the quarter-finals for the first time in five years.