Right, that’s me done. I’ll be back for more tomorrow, see you then I hope. Bye!
Jonathan Liew was at the Allianz Arena to see this one, and here is his report:
A couple of tonight’s key statistics:
🧱 - Most clean sheets in the Champions League among goalkeepers🧤
— Gracenote Live (@GracenoteLive) March 5, 2024
5️⃣7️⃣ - Manuel Neuer🇩🇪 (+1)
5️⃣7️⃣ - Iker Casillas🇪🇸
5️⃣2️⃣ - Gianluigi Buffon🇮🇹
5️⃣0️⃣ - Edwin van der Sar🇳🇱
4️⃣7️⃣ - Petr Cech🇨🇿#FCBLAZ #UCL
Bayern (3.77) 3-0 (0.41) Lazio
— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) March 5, 2024
Final score: Bayern Munich 3-0 Lazio (Bayern win 3-1 on aggregate)
90+4 mins: It’s all over! There was talk of Thomas Tuchel getting the boot tonight if Bayern didn’t turn this round, but from the moment Harry Kane put them ahead on the night that never looked likely, and they eventually made it through very comfortably.
Updated
90+2 mins: And another booking – Laimer nicks the ball off Pellegrini and would have had far too much space to sprint into had he been allowed to get away with it, so Pellegrini brings him down.
90 mins: And now Gnabry comes on for Musiala.
89 mins: Konrad Laimer replaces Sane for Bayern.
88 mins: Kane wins the ball by the left-wing corner, carries it 25 yards, turns back, lays it off, and as he does so Cataldi comes in with a late challenge. There’s not much to it, but Kane makes the most of it and earns him a booking.
87 mins: Three minutes (plus stoppages) from the end of this tie and the away sides in both legs still haven’t had a shot on target.
85 mins: Lazio will think about Immobile’s first-half miss – Guendouzi, 25 yards behind him, had already started his leap of joy and crumpled to the turf when he realised the chance had gone begging – but they have offered next to nothing since they fell behind in the tie on the stroke of half-time.
80 mins: Daichi Kamada comes on for Luis Alberto. Romagnoli earns the day’s first booking by challenging Kane for a header a little overphysically, and also despite having no chance of actually winning the ball.
78 mins: Those subs in full: Guerreiro and Muller go off, while Alphonso Davies and Mathys Tel come on.
76 mins: The clock is back. This game, though, is very clearly over. Bayern are preparing a couple of subs.
75 mins: Lazio bring Pedro on for Felipe Anderson. I say its the 75th minute, the clock has fallen off the TV screen so I’ve no idea.
73 mins: The ball drops to Luis Alberto on the edge of the area, but he takes an age to set himself for the shot and that gives Bayern time to close him down. The ball deflects wide.
71 mins: Muller hits the post! Really he should have scored, having been the one of four options chosen by Musiala and duly released into the right side of the area. He may have turned out to be offside had he done so, though.
Updated
69 mins: Immobile is sitting on the bench with an ice pack on his left knee.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 3-0 Lazio (Kane, 66 mins)
Another tap-in from Harry Edward Kane MBE. Sane cuts in from the left, is obviously going to shoot towards the far post, shoots towards the far post, and Provedel shovels it into the path of Kane, who makes no mistake from six yards.
Updated
61 mins: A triple substitution from Lazio, who bring off Vecino, Zuccagni and Immobile and, and bring on Gustav Isaksen, Taty Castellanos and Danilo Cataldi. Meanwhile, Mbappe has bagged a second to put PSG 2-0 up on the night at Real Sociedad.
59 mins: Muller to Kane, Kane to Guerrero, and a left-foot shot from the edge of the area the flies wide of the far post. Lazio are yet to show us how they plan to turn this around.
57 mins: Kimmich’s crossing radar has been a bit off-beam today, and another effort finds a defender’s bonce. Lazio’s break breaks down once it hits halfway.
55 mins: Kane is close to connecting with a header and, seconds later, Musiala is not too far wide with a shot from the edge of the area. It came off Guendouzi’s foot, so it’ll be a corner.
52 mins: Immobile tries to hook the ball goalwards inside the Bayern penalty area and hits De Ligt in his follow-through. He goes down and stays there, rolling around aplenty, but the referee is unimpressed.
49 mins: I reckon Manuel Neuer has already had as many touches from open play as he had in the first half, as Bayern pass the ball across their back-line. The spell ends, though, with a Lazio free-kick, which Luis Alberto sends into the mixer and Dier heads back out again.
47 mins: Bayern have clearly been told at half-time that they can take things a bit more slowly now.
46 mins: Peeeeep! They’re off! Again!
Right, the players are back out and ready for more. As, indeed, are we all.
Half time: Bayern Munich 2-0 Lazio
A massive moment just before the break, as the last touch of the half sees Thomas Muller put Bayern 2-1 ahead on aggregate. Bayern have been the better, more adventurous side but Lazio have had their moments and could easily have scored themselves. In other words, there could yet be a twist in this one.
Updated
GOAL! Bayern Munich 2-0 Lazio (Muller, 45+2 mins)
And in the second of those one minutes Bayern double their lead, courtesy of De Ligt’s screaming volley from a left-wing corner, which is turned in by Muller with his head as it flies past!
Updated
45+1 mins: Just the one minute of first-half stoppage time planned.
42 mins: The two No10s come together, about 40 yards from the Lazio goal. Luis Alberto challenges and Sane goes down a bit easily, clips the ball with his hand as he does so, and the referee gives a free-kick for handball. The home fans are not pleased.
40 mins: And nearly another! Suddenly Bayern have players everywhere and each of them in space, and they slice through Lazio and eventually tee up Musiala, whose first-time shot, stretching slightly, goes just wide!
GOAL! Bayern Munich 1-0 Lazio (Kane, 39 mins)
Harry Kane levels the tie! Muller nods back to Guerreiro, whose shot is so badly mishit it bounces up to Kane, who heads in off the keeper from close range!
Updated
37 mins: The chance of the game so far, and it falls to Ciro Immobile! The cross comes in from the left, flicks off the eyebrows of one defender, flies just over another and arrives at Immobile at the far post, completely on his own, but he miscues wide!
35 mins: Chance for Bayern! Kimmich crosses from the right and Dier, still up from an earlier set piece, rises highest at the near post but heads well over the bar.
Updated
33 mins: Muller pulls the ball back from the right and the referee absolutely fluffs his attempt to get out of the way, diving into the ball rather than jumping over it. Slavko Vincic, for it is he, looks suitably embarrassed.
Watch out ref! 🫣
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 5, 2024
The Bayern Munich crowd were left unpleased after Slavko Vincic slipped into the path of the ball 😅#UCL pic.twitter.com/TB7I1HC9F1
Updated
30 mins: For the first time, Bayern pass the ball left to right and right to left across the midfield while 11 Lazio players occupy space in front of them.
26 mins: It’s been a lot of fun, pretty hectic, but the only proper, clear chance for someone to have a good shot on goal from a reasonable distance without any defenders in the way was Muller’s, back in minute six.
Updated
23 mins: Bayern go close! A lovely touch from Kimmich opens up a shooting chance, deflected into another shooting chance, and another. The best of them falls to Guerreiro, but his left-footed blast hits a defender.
20 mins: Elsewhere, Kylian Mbappe has given PSG a 1-0 lead on the night, and a 3-0 aggregate advantage, over Real Sociedad.
17 mins: The referee runs to the touchline to swap his goalline technology watch-thing.
17 mins: A first sight of goal for Kane, whose 20-yarder flicks a defensive shin on its way wide.
16 mins: A snappy exchange of passes on the left for Bayern creates an excellent chance to cross, but the low ball in goes just behind Muller.
14 mins: Now Bayern have a corner, which Kimmich rolls to Musiala, who cuts onto his right foot before spearing a shot goalwards. It’s travelling, and the penalty area is packed, but Provedel should have saved it pretty comfortably and indeed, albeit with a two-handed dive, did.
12 mins: Eric Dier raises his foot to cut out the ball just as it seemed to be dropping inside the penalty area to the unmarked Vecino.
11 mins: Lazio win a free-kick on the right and a corner on the left, both of which are headed clear. But they have clearly not turned up just to defend.
8 mins: It is all happening. Sane runs down the right, jinks into the area and lays off to Musiala, but two Lazio defenders throw themselves at him and one of them deflects the shot wide.
6 mins: And the first save of the night is by Ivan Provedel, after Thomas Muller shoots low but straight at him from the right of the penalty area.
5 mins: The first shot of the night comes from the right boot of Matteo Guendouzi, but it skids wide.
4 mins: Kimmich has the ball on the right and this time there are plenty of options in the middle, but he can’t find any of them. The ball’s half-cleared and worked left to Guerreiro, and he can’t either.
2 mins: A very bright start, with Bayern attacking down the right but not picking out their one man inside the penalty area, and Lazio countering but overhitting their final pass.
1 min: Peeeeeep! This football match has begun!
The players are out and the tournament anthem has been played. TNT Sports’ commentator appears to be sitting some way from his microphone. Speak up man!
“Reading about the less-than-desirable activity from Lazio supporters reminded me of this article from Big Website that was in a somewhat recent Football Daily email (no, I am not being paid for this),” Justin Madson writes, helpfully. That link again, in case you missed it:
Meanwhile Gregory Hilton astutely points out that Bayern’s dressing-room is very much like the bogs in the Shining.
This is what Bayern’s dressing-room looks like, before the players turn up. Isn’t it a bit … headache-inducingly awful?
This has just landed from Reuters:
An Italian fan was arrested in Munich on Monday for performing a Hitler salute after the police were called to a beer hall where a gathering of Lazio supporters had assembled. Bayern Munich host Lazio in the second leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie on Tuesday. Lazio hold a 1-0 advantage from the first match. In a statement on Tuesday, Munich police said that an 18-year-old was arrested for performing the salute and released after posting a four-figure sum as bail. Italian media shared a video showing Lazio supporters congregating in a Munich beer hall, enthusiastically chanting “Duce! Duce! Duce!” - a familiar term for the former Italian dictator and ally of Hitler, Benito Mussolini.
It wasn’t just any old beer hall, either – it was the Hofbräuhaus, where Hitler officially marked the founding of the National Socialist Party in 1920. Lazio fans being Lazio fans (there are exceptions, obviously).
The teams
The teams are out, and they look like this:
Bayern Munich: Neuer, Kimmich, de Ligt, Dier, Guerreiro, Pavlovic, Goretzka, Sane, Muller, Musiala, Kane. Subs: Kim, Gnabry, Choupo-Moting, Zaragoza, Peretz, Davies, Ulreich, Laimer, Tel.
Lazio: Provedel, Marusic, Gila, Romagnoli, Pellegrini, Guendouzi, Vecino, Luis Alberto, Felipe Anderson, Immobile, Zaccagni. Subs: Kamada, Pedro, Casale, Isaksen, Castellanos, Hysaj, Lazzari, Cataldi, Sepe, Ruggeri, Magro, Napolitano.
Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).
✨ 𝗨𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗫𝗜 𝘃𝘀. 𝗟𝗮𝘇𝗶𝗼 ✨
— FC Bayern München (@FCBayern) March 5, 2024
Auf geht, Jungs! #packmas 👊#FCBayern #MiaSanMia #UCL #FCBLAZ pic.twitter.com/E4ozWrAMhj
📝 Il nostro 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗖𝗜#UCL | #BayernLazio #CMonEagles 🦅 pic.twitter.com/QXkyqbrzp5
— S.S.Lazio (@OfficialSSLazio) March 5, 2024
Preamble
Bayern Munich, one win in five (and that, at home to Leipzig, needed an injury-time Harry Kane winner), play Lazio, two wins in five and three in nine, in a battle between teams that perhaps aren’t in a full-blown crisis yet but could be imminently, and that are already or could soon be looking for replacements for the former Chelsea managers who occupy their dugouts. They have much in common, but soon one will prevail. And neither has been doing a whole lot of prevailing of late.
Bayern are actually having a better season than last year (they’re two points ahead of their tally after 24 games then), when they won the league on goal difference, but Bayer Leverkusen are 10 points ahead of them so a similarly happy ending seems unlikely, and they were knocked out of the DFB-Pokal by tiny Saarbrücken back in November, so it’s very much this or nothing in the silverware stakes. Lazio can only dream of being 10 points behind the leaders in their domestic league – Internazionale are currently a full 32 points ahead of them, another seven sides sit between the two, and it’s a decade since Lazio last finished as low as ninth. They do at least have a Coppa Italia semi-final to distract them.
Lazio are a goal up after the first leg, in which Bayern had 17 shots but not a single one on target, and Ciro Immobile swept home from the spot after Dayot Upamecano had got himself sent off for fouling Gustav Eriksen. Thomas Tuchel, Bayern’s head coach, says he wants a “good mix of cool heads but still putting your foot on the gas in an emotional way. Patience is required … but we have no time to lose”. This sounds like a recipe for a pleasingly (for a neutral) chaotic game of football, which is precisely what I’m looking for. Thanks for joining me!
