The hosts, who came back from a goal down against the Bundesliga club, had also eliminated Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt in earlier rounds of the competition.

The visitors took an early lead with Robin Hack’s low drive but it lasted only three minutes with Amine Naifi benefitting from a lucky bounce to get the ball and fire in from 18 metres for an 11th-minute equaliser.

Saarbruecken’s Kai Bruenker then struck deep in second-half stoppage time with a shot from just inside the box to set up a semifinal against Kaiserslautern.

Bayer Leverkusen take on second division Fortuna Duesseldorf in the other semifinal next month.