Lazio saw two penalties saved but still managed to rout 10-man Sassuolo 6-2 to remain top of Serie A on Tuesday.

Mainz was dumped out of the German Cup by second-division Bochum, while Leipzig narrowly avoided humiliation at third-tier Rot-Weiss Essen.

Sassuolo goalkeeper Stefano Turati saved two penalties but couldn´t prevent his team from falling to a hefty loss.

Sassuolo was already 3-1 down when midfielder Kristian Thorstvedt was shown a straight red card in the 31st minute for a horror tackle on Mattia Zaccagni, who was fortunate to escape without serious injury.

Sebastiano Esposito managed to pull one back but Zaccagni restored Lazio´s two-goal advantage on the stroke of halftime.

Tijjani Noslin scored twice in the second half, while Turati stopped spotkicks from Zaccagni and Davide Frattesi.

Lazio moved three points clear of Inter Milan, which visits bottom club Venezia on Wednesday.

Third-place Roma can move back to within four points of Lazio with a win at home to Cagliari later Tuesday.

Essen´s second-round match against Leipzig had hit the headlines even before kickoff after an act of sabotage saw concrete poured around the gate to the away end at the stadium to seal it shut - it was opened well before supporters started to arrive.

On the field, Essen almost pulled off a shock. Lucas Brumme took advantage of a terrible back pass by Castello Lukeba and a slip by goalkeeper Ørjan Nyland to fire Essen into a ninth-minute lead.

Essen´s chances appeared to grow when Leipzig midfielder Nicolas Seiwald was sent off shortly before halftime following two yellow cards in the space of 10 minutes.

However, substitute Christoph Baumgartner scored two late goals to turn the game around for Leipzig, which won 2-1.

In Bochum, Christian Rasmussen and Philipp Hofmann netted in the second half to send the second-division side into the round of 16 with a 2-0 win over Mainz.

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