The second-legs of the UCL last 16 got underway on Tuesday night with two of Europe’s biggest clubs looking to avoid being knocked out after contrasting fortunes in their first-leg games.
Bayern took the first steps towards reigniting their season as they overturned a first-leg deficit against Lazio in comprehensive fashion, with Kane bagging a brace in a 3-0 victory.
Thomas Tuchel’s stuttering side were beaten in Rome three weeks ago while a draw away to Freiburg on Friday saw them fall 10 points adrift of Bayern Leverkusen in the Bundesliga title race.
But they produced an assured and confident performance on Tuesday night, with Tuchel’s selection gamble of picking Eric Dier over Kim Min-jae paying off, and they can now look forward to a fifth straight appearance in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Lazio showed a few flickers of threat on the break in the early exchanges but it was Bayern who took control and created a number of openings – though were too often let down by a poor final pass or shot.
Unlike the first leg, when Lazio packed their box, Bayern were managing to find pockets of space in the penalty area with regularity and they ought to have netted when a pull-back found an unmarked Jamal Musiala, but his goal-bound effort was blocked.
The first big chance of the half fell to Ciro Immobile, though, with a deflected cross flying over the heads of Bayern’s static back-line, but the Lazio skipper glanced his diving header just wide of the near post from close range.
Lazio were made to pay almost immediately, with a floated pass in behind the Italian side finally unlocking the defence. The evergreen Thomas Muller nodded it down and Raphael Guerreiro’s sliced effort fell into the path of Kane, who nodded the ball through the palms of Ivan Provedel.
Suddenly the hosts had their tails up and started to pour forward, with Musiala missing a great chance to put Bayern ahead in the tie just before the break.
They did get a deserved second on the stroke of half-time, though; initially it looked as if Matthijs de Ligt had scored a truly stunning volley, back-peddling from a corner before rifling into the back of the net, but replays showed that a just-onside Muller had headed the ball just in front of Provedel.
Bayern continued to control proceedings in the second half with Lazio reduced to a very optimistic penalty appeal and occasional, sporadic counters.
The tie was effectively put to bed in the 66th minute when the dangerous Leroy Sane dribbled in off the right flank, shifted the ball onto his left foot and powered an effort towards the bottom corner. Provedel managed to parry it but only as far as Kane, who was left with an easy tap-in.
While Bayern won’t exactly have the rest of Europe quaking in their boots – Lazio are, after all, only ninth in Serie A – their performance suggests they still have enough weapons to cause plenty of problems in the last eight and, perhaps, beyond.
Meanwhile in Spain, PSG visited Real Sociedad carrying a 2-0 lead, but having bottled it at this stage so many times before, nothing was certain.
Both sides threw caution to the wind early on, but there would be no shock exit for the Parisians this time, with Kylian Mbappe finding the back of the net after just 15 minutes.
The French forward bamboozled defenders with his footwork and continued to be the Ligue 1 champions’ best attacking threat, with Alex Remiro denying Mbappe a second with a brilliant save with his foot.
But it was only a matter of time before the 25-year-old bagged his brace, finding the back of the net with a quality finish after a lovely string of passes.
Sociedad thought they had grabbed a consolation just after the hour but Ander Barrenetxea, who had been subbed on just seconds before, had a header ruled out for offside.
The La Liga side were determined to get a goal but just couldn’t find their clinical touch with Martin Zubimendi blazing over a great chance, while Benat Turrientes was denied after firing a shot from close range straight at Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Eventually, in the 89th minute, they got their deserved goal through skipper Mikel Merino, firing in on the half-volley after a great period of sustained pressure on the visitor’s goal.
Vitinha nearly grabbed another for PSG in injury time, but it was all smiles for Luis Enrique’s side however, with star right-back Achraf Hakimi picking up a yellow card which means he’ll miss the next game through suspension.
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