In the fifth and final H2H meeting of the season, Leverkusen knew that the task at hand was a mammoth one, having to become just the fifth side in UCL history to lose the first leg of a knockout stage tie by 3+ goals and still progress.
Yet it was Bayern who looked dangerous in the early stages, as Harry Kane almost opened his side’s account within five minutes.
Jamal Musiala showed quick feet on the right flank before sliding the ball across goal for Kane to fire in, but the Englishman was tangled with Jonathan Tah, preventing him from finding the back of the net as Lukas Hradecky palmed the ball away from the goal line.
Leverkusen were struggling to gain a foothold in the contest as Vincent Kompany’s men twice went close on the quarter-hour mark.
Firstly, Kane saw a shot from distance saved, before Michael Olise flashed an effort inches wide from outside the box. It took until the 37th minute for the hosts to go as close as that, with Patrik Schick heading narrowly wide from Granit Xhaka’s cross.
The Czech striker was getting closer with half-time approaching as he headed into the side netting before the break, but Bayern’s sizable aggregate lead remained intact.
With just 45 minutes left for Leverkusen to save their European campaign, tensions were high in the BayArena, with Xabi Alonso booked within two minutes of the restart.
The life was then sucked out of the stadium in the 52nd minute when Schick’s miskicked clearance from Joshua Kimmich’s cross fell into Harry Kane’s path.
The striker made no mistake tapping in for his 10th UCL goal this season, making him the first ever English player to score 10 goals in a European Cup/UCL campaign.
Coman came close to a second Bayern goal just before the hour mark, but his effort was saved at the near post by Hradecky.
With the tie all but over, Die Werkself were playing for nothing but pride, and both Jeremie Frimpong and Schick came close to levelling on the night, but their efforts were saved by UCL debutant Jonas Urbig.
The tie and match were ended as a contest when a swift move culminated with Kane delivering a ball into the box for Alphonso Davies to slide in.
In the end, Bayern coasted through both legs with relatively no trouble and inflicted a third successive defeat on Leverkusen for the first time since August 2022 – and the first such ‘threepeat’ Alonso has suffered in his time as Leverkusen boss. Kompany’s men will now face Simone Inzahghi’s Inter in the quarter-finals next month.
Leverkusen’s best chance of silverware will come in the DFB-Pokal, with Alonso’s side eight points behind leaders Bayern in the league.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Harry Kane (Bayern Munich)