Robert Lewandowski scored twice to save his 10-men team from a humiliating German Cup exit as Bayern Munich came from behind to beat second-tier Heidenheim in a 5-4 home thriller on Wednesday.

Bayern were 2-1 down at half-time having gone down to ten men early in the game, and threw away a two-goal lead in the second half.

Lewandowski came on for the second half and netted the winning penalty six minutes from fulltime for 18-times cup winners Bayern, who had Niklas Suele sent off after 15 minutes.

"I don't know how to rate this game," said Bayern midfielder Thomas Mueller, "That they came back to 4-4 after we led 4-2, so that cannot please us. The match should have gone differently after we went 1-0 up."

Bayern Munich has now reached the last four for ten consecutive times, along with Hamburg SV, RB Leipzig and Werder Bremen, who claimed a 2-0 win at Schalke 04 thanks to second-half goals by Milot Rashica and Davy Klaassen.

(With input from Reuters and AFP)