{"id":22638,"date":"2025-03-12T12:59:58","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T12:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=22638"},"modified":"2025-03-12T12:59:58","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T12:59:58","slug":"ucl-bayern-beat-leverkusen-5-0-on-aggregate-to-secure-quarterfinals-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=22638","title":{"rendered":"UCL: Bayern beat Leverkusen 5-0 on aggregate to secure quarterfinals spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harry Kane scored a goal and set up another as Bayern Munich won 2-0 at Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday, going through to the Champions League quarter-finals 5-0 on aggregate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bayern were comfortable against last season\u2019s unbeaten German champions, having already done the damage with a dominant 3-0 win at home in the first leg.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the match scoreless at half-time, Leverkusen rolled the dice in search of the goals they needed but it was Bayern who struck, with Kane waltzing through to tap in a Joshua Kimmich cross early in the second period.<\/span><\/p>\n

With Leverkusen again pushing forward, the visitors added a second in the 71st minute, Alphonso Davies slamming a clever Kane chip low and hard to double Bayern\u2019s lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kane, so often criticised for going missing in big games and scoring against the minnows, was again commanding, as he had been when scoring a brace in Munich.<\/span><\/p>\n

The England captain showed finesse and physicality as he kept Bayern on track for a dream home final and a chance to exorcise the ghosts of their 2012 Champions League final loss to Chelsea.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leverkusen showed spirit despite missing pivotal midfielder Florian Wirtz, but the scale of the task was too high.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eight points behind Bayern in the league, Xabi Alonso\u2019s likely last remaining chance for silverware this season is the German Cup, where Leverkusen are through to the final four.<\/span><\/p>\n

A month after dominating the same opponents at the same venue but somehow failing to break through, Leverkusen hosted Bayern in drastically different circumstances.<\/span><\/p>\n

Put to the sword in Munich in perhaps the poorest performance of Alonso\u2019s 30-month reign six days earlier, Leverkusen needed to turn the tables on Bayern while lacking the injured Wirtz, their best player.<\/span><\/p>\n

After criticism for his team selections in Munich, omitting in-form striker Patrik Schick and putting usual back-up goalkeeper Matej Kovar in goal, Alonso named the Czech up front and put captain Lukas Hradecky back between the sticks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bayern\u2019s Vincent Kompany made only one change, with rookie goalie Jonas Urbig replacing injured veteran Manuel Neuer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kane signalled Bayern\u2019s intent early, forcing Hradecky into acrobatic saves twice in the opening 15 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leverkusen lacked Wirtz and a little fluidity but remained ambitious, with an animated Alonso repeatedly urging them forward from the sideline.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schick, given a total of just 11 minutes in Leverkusen\u2019s two previous matches, headed inches wide with 38 minutes gone, the hosts\u2019 best chance of the opening half.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second half brought more necessary risk for Leverkusen and Bayern sensed the blood in the water.<\/span><\/p>\n

With 52 minutes gone, Kane got on the end of Kimmich\u2019s lofted pass to kill off any remaining Leverkusen hope.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kane then set up Davies to score inside the final 20 minutes, putting Bayern into the last eight and keeping his own personal quest for a team trophy alive on the biggest club football stage of all.<\/span><\/p>\n

AFP<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harry Kane scored a goal and set up another as Bayern Munich won 2-0 at Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday, going through to the Champions League quarter-finals 5-0 on aggregate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5321,7864,5396,3390],"class_list":["post-22638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-bayern","tag-leverkusen","tag-quarter-final","tag-ucl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22640,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22638\/revisions\/22640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}