Beaten 1-0 in the first leg at the Olympic stadium in Rome, Bayern Munich overthrew Lazio on Tuesday March 5 at home (3-0), with a double from Harry Kane, to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League .

Deeply mired in crisis after a sequence - extremely rare for the Bavarian club - of three defeats in mid-February, Bayern offered itself a little breath of fresh air in front of its 75,000 spectators to continue the European adventure.

And who else than Harry Kane, Munich's top scorer this season and recruiting at a high price (more than 100 million euros) in order to be decisive in European evenings, to put the Bavarian train back on the right track.

Comeback ✔️



Quarterfinals, here we come!

🤩



♦️ #FCBLAZ 3-0 (FT) ♦️ pic.twitter.com/oalgOlQhGh

— FC Bayern Munich (@FCBayernEN) March 5, 2024

After half an hour of almost exclusive domination, the captain of the English selection found himself alone in the six meters and was able to head a missed recovery from Raphaël Guerreiro to open the scoring.

The Munich residents continued their pressure on the Laziale goal, and once again found the breach in the Roman wall in added time of the first period, with a fox goal from the areas of Thomas Müller.

On a corner taken by Guerreiro and pushed back to the near post, Matthijs de Ligt volleyed and Müller, covered by Felipe Anderson, was able to put his head in to free the Allianz Arena.

In the second half, Kane once again found himself ideally placed to take a shot from Leroy Sané, repelled as best he could by Lazio goalkeeper Ivan Provedel, to push the ball into the empty goal and provide an end to the match less stressful for his team.

Kane has scored six goals this season in the Champions League, 33 in total with Bayern, adding the 27 scored in the Bundesliga.

He was man of the match alongside Müller, with the 34-year-old German center forward involved in all three goals in Bayern's perfect evening.

In its history in the Champions League, Bayern had only reversed the negative trend of a first leg loss three times (out of 14 matches) in 2015 against Porto, in 2012 against Basel and 2007 against Real Madrid.

Deprived of the last European four for the last three seasons, Bayern was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Paris SG in 2021, by the Spaniards Villarreal in 2022 and by Manchester City in 2023.

Whatever the outcome of the draw on Friday March 15, Bayern will be in the position of underdog in the quarters.

Because the Munich club has been going through a strong storm for weeks which is causing the boat on Benner Strasse, the club's headquarters in the south of the city, to rock heavily.

In difficulty in Germany

Eliminated in the round of 16 of the German Cup by Saarbrücken, a modest resident of the third division, the Munich residents have almost abandoned all hope of a twelfth consecutive German championship title, ten points behind Bayer Leverkusen, leader undefeated this season in 34 matches in all competitions.

The club has decided to terminate the contract of coach Thomas Tuchel at the end of the season on June 30, 2024, a year before the initial deadline, a few days after the defeat in Bochum on February 18.

Moreover, it was a convalescent Bayern who got rid of the trap set by a very weak Lazio Rome on Tuesday evening, with a big scare just before Kane's opening score, when Ciro Immobile, alone at the far post, failed. failed to get a header on target.

With AFP

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