Dusseldorf took the lead within the first minute when a stunning 20 yard strike from Maximilian Beister found the back of the net.

At the other end, Rukavytsya fluffed the best of Hertha’s early chances, firing a shot into the side netting.

Anis Ben-Hatira, however, made no mistake and equalised for the Berliners in the 23rd minute, before Dusseldorf reclaimed the lead through Ranisav Jovanovic.

A powerful strike from Rafael five minutes from time made it 2-2, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Dusseldorf from winning 4-3 on aggregate.

Robbie Kruse wasn’t in the squad for Dusseldorf, while Nikita Rukavytsya started and played 72 minutes for Hertha.

Elsewhere in Europe, Carl Valeri put in a full shift as Sassuolo’s hopes of playing in Serie A suffered another setback following a 3-0 loss to promotion rivals Torino.

With two matches remaining, Sassuolo are currently third on the Serie B table, three points away from second-place Pescara. If they fail to finish in the top two, they will compete in a promotion play-off series.

In the J-League Cup, Matthew Spiranovic made just his second start of the season and picked up a yellow card as Urawa Red Diamonds defeated Kawasaki Frontale 3-0.

Urawa’s preferred defensive pairing of Keisuke Tsuboi and Mitsuru Nagata were rested for the match, allowing Spiranovic to get some much needed game time ahead of Australia’s World Cup qualifiers in June.

The last match the Socceroo defender played for Urawa was a cup tie against Vegalta Sendai in March.

Alex Brosque was rested for Shimizu S-Pulse’s 2-1 victory of Vissel Kobe, while Jade North played a full match for Consadole Sapporo in the 1-1 draw against Omiya Ardija.

In the Asian Champions League, Sasa Ognenovski put in another imposing performance at the back as Seongnam defeated Tianjin Teda 3-0. Milan Susak was absent from the Tianjin squad because of suspension.

Suspension also ruled out Mark Bresciano for Al Nasr’s 2-1 victory over Lekhwiya.