Bayern beat Schalke in shoot-out to reach final

Bayern Munich beat Schalke 04 4-1 in a penalty shoot-out on Wednesday night to advance to the final of Bundesliga's pre-season League Cup tournament against Werder Bremen tomorrow.

Bayern, who won the Bundesliga last season, and fourth-placed Schalke played to a scoreless draw after 90 minutes. There was no extra-time and the two clubs went straight to the shoot-out in Munich before a crowd of 40,000.

Bayern reserve keeper Michael Rensing, filling in for Oliver Kahn, stopped the first shot by Sebastian Boenisch and watched as Sebastian Abel sent Schalke's second shot over the bar.

Bayern converted all four of their penalties; Mehmet Scholl, Owen Hargreaves, Roque Santa Cruz and Willy Sagnol.

Both teams had plenty of chances to score during the match. Bayern advanced to the League Cup final for the sixth time and have won it five times already.

Germany striker Lukas Podolski made his first appearance in Munich after transferring from Cologne but accomplished little.

"We played well at times," said Bayern coach Felix Magath. "But you could see we have a lot of work to do. We let in a lot of chances, but had quite a few good chances ourselves. It was an exciting match to watch for the spectators."

Bremen, who finished second last season, beat third place Hamburg SV 2-1 on Tuesday in the other semi-final and now face Bayern in Leipzig. The Bundesliga season begins on August 11.