Carles Martinez lauded his Bayer Leverkusen side after they "showed a lot of passion" in their DFB-Pokal victory over FC Nurnberg.

Nurnberg threatened to cause an upset at BayArena after goals from Rafael Lubach and Sigurd Haugen saw the second-tier side take a 2-0 lead inside 30 minutes.

However, Edmond Tapsoba scored either side of half-time before goals from Patrik Schick, Jonas Hofmann and Lucas Vazquez secured a 5-2 win and a spot in the last 16.

Tapsoba scored his first brace for the club in what was his 282nd Leverkusen appearance, while Aleix Garcia contributed with two assists.

It was a dominant performance from Leverkusen, who accumulated 3.07 expected goals (xG) from 25 shots, six of which were Opta-defined big chances.

"We didn't get off to the start we wanted," said Martinez.

"Nurnberg played brilliantly. But I'm very pleased with the second half. We didn’t lose belief in ourselves and we turned the game around.

"The players did a good job and showed a lot of passion. I particularly liked that!"

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Along with his goal, Hofmann recorded more shots than any other player (five) and created the most chances (five).

Despite their slow start, the midfielder took pride in Leverkusen's resilience.

"We faced a strong opponent," said Hofmann.

"Although we had chances of our own, we didn't manage to get a foothold in the first half as we would have liked.

"However, Eddy's goal just before half-time gave us the chance to get back into the game. We didn't let our heads drop. That was important.

"You really feel the connection with the fans. It's absolutely brilliant. I couldn't stop smiling [after scoring]."