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Thomas Müller played a decisive role in Munich's progress

Photo: Tom Weller / dpa

Close your eyes – and get through it:

What is a “Thomas Müller game”?

This football vocabulary crept into the vocabulary of those responsible for Bayern a year ago when Thomas Tuchel put the original Bavarians on the bench for the Champions League duels against Manchester City.

Old star Müller is now a proud 34, but has been important again under Tuchel in the last few months.

Before the second leg against Lazio, Müller was the only Munich player who absorbed the Champions League anthem with his eyes closed.

The Munich-based “Raumdeuter” once again focused on his unique football genius, made a run deep before making it 1-0 to serve Guerreiro with a header (39th minute), and headed the 2-0 goal himself from three meters (45th minute). +1) when he stuck his forehead into a De Ligt volley.

It was the right signal at the right moment.

Thomas Müller's time doesn't seem to be up yet, and neither is that of FC Bayern Munich.

The result:

FC Bayern Munich prevailed 3-0 (2-0) in the second leg against Lazio Rome, the 0-1 defeat in the first leg was not a whole half of the game as a threatening backdrop.

With one of the best performances in recent weeks, Bayern moved into the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Read the match report here.

Everything can, nothing has to:

Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel and the German press were often a relationship characterized by friction.

Amazon reporter Sebastian Benesch seemed to want to counteract this, inviting Tuchel to spread optimism before the game: "How much are you looking forward to this evening, which can bring a bit of calm again?" Based on the impressions of the past few weeks The current coach of the German record champions remained cautious.

"Yes, 'can'," replied Tuchel, as if he didn't trust the roast itself.

Attack of the clone players:

But then there was calm.

Not only internally thanks to the 2-0 half-time lead, but also on the pitch the Munich team appeared confident and less nervous than they have recently in the league.

Surprisingly, this was also due to 19-year-old Aleksandar Pavlović: under Tuchel, Germany's U20 international has blossomed from a hopeful experiment into a regular in the center and has pushed top dog Joshua Kimmich to the right side of defense.

For his part, Pavlović repeatedly offered chip passes into the depths that were hardly distinguishable from Kimmich's openings.

If national coach Julian Nagelsmann hadn't just brought Toni Kroos back, Pavlović's appointment in this condition wouldn't be crazy.

Against the Curse, Part One:

Harry Kane has been a world-class striker for about a decade.

However, the 30-year-old has not yet won any titles.

This may be due to the fact that the Englishman spent all these years at Tottenham Hotspur - only: Kane also seemed to be on course for a title with Bayern.

Munich are out of the DFB Cup and far behind in the league.

All that remains is the Champions League - and Kane shouldn't fail: With a header (39th) and a duster (66th), Kane scored his competitive goals 32 and 33 in his 33rd appearance for FCB.

Against the curse, part two:

The last seven Bavarian attempts to turn around a lost first leg in the premier class had all failed.

The Romans, ninth in the table in Italy, however, were not an equal sparring partner, managed almost nothing beyond a header from Ciro Immobile (37') and were able to thank goalkeeper Ivan Provedel for at least blocking Müller's shot from a tight angle against the post directed (71').

San Manu:

Speaking of goalkeepers: The 3-0 was a record for Manuel Neuer, the 57th time he remained without conceding a goal in the premier class.

Only Real Madrid's legendary goalkeeper Iker Casillas had previously achieved this.

Motivated to the tips of their toes:

At the end of the day, Bayern were happy and relieved.

Only one was battered: "The motivational speech before the game cost me my big toe, I think," said Thomas Tuchel, who explained why he watched his team's game sitting down for 90 minutes.

Apparently he had kicked something too hard.

It is uncertain whether the injury will have healed by the quarter-final first leg on April 9th ​​or 10th.

The tickets for the next round will be drawn on Friday, March 15th.

Tuchel wished for “a bit of luck,” and Müller hoped to carry the momentum of the victory with him into the next few weeks: “This isn’t a relief, but we’ve taken a very, very important step.”