Bayern Munich win German Cup

Bayern Munich's Michael Ballack holds the victor's trophy after they defeated Eintracht Frankfurt in the final of the German Cup at Berlin's Olympiastadion. Bayern won 1-0.

A Claudio Pizarro header earned Bayern Munich a 1-0 German Cup final victory over Eintracht Frankfurt to put them firmly on course for a second consecutive league and cup double.

Pizarro found the net from a corner by substitute Ze Roberto in the 59th minute and it was enough to earn Felix Magath's team their 13th German Cup crown.

Bayern clinched the double last season with a 2-1 cup final victory over Schalke 04 and a second successive league title is on the cards with just five points needed from the remaining three games to ensure their Bundesliga crown.

Eintracht at least had the consolation of qualifying for next season's second-tier European competition, the UEFA Cup.

However, on Wednesday they must play Kaiserslautern in a bid to keep relegation at bay.

The 74,349-strong crowd, including Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann, saw a largely well-balanced contest where outsiders Frankfurt refused to make things easy for their more famous opponents.

Early on, Frankfurt managed to close down the channels through which Bayern have fed long passes to Roy Makaay and Pizarro with such success this season and Michael Ballack, as well as the rest of the Bayern midfield, did not have their best of matches.

The first chance of the match fell to Dutchman Makaay after three minutes though Frankfurt had the best opportunity of the first half when lone striker Ioannis Amanatidis narrowly missed the target with a fierce shot from the edge of Oliver Kahn's box.

Bayern were playing in workmanlike fashion, without much passion, before the break but they upped the tempo at the restart.

Ze Roberto was brought on by Magath for Bosnian Hasan Salihamidzic and Bayern immediately had more of an impact with Ballack having a headed chance and Frankfurt keeper Oka Nikolov pushing a Makaay close-range shot on to the crossbar.

The 19-times German league champions had more luck on the hour when a corner on the right from Brazilian Ze Roberto found the head of Pizarro who netted past Nikolov.

Though no more goals were added to the score there was excitement when referee Herbert Fandel turned down a penalty appeal for a Willy Sagnol foul on Benjamin Kohler and sent Frankfurt coach Friedhelm Funkel to the stands for his over zealous protests.

Amanatidis nearly earned an equaliser shortly before the final whistle but Kahn, who saved the day explained afterwards: "It was a lucky save. I only saw the ball at the last minute and I reacted instinctively by raising my hand up to the left.

"Now we have to win the league to win another double."