What does UCL win against Bayer Leverkusen mean for Bayern Munich? | OneFootball

Earlier in March, Bayern Munich eliminated Bayer Leverkusen from the Champions League at the round-of-16 stage of the competition. The Bavarian side progressed to the quarter-final stage, 5-0 on aggregate, courtesy of a 3-0 win at home on March 5, followed by a 2-0 triumph at the Bay Arena six days later.

Going into the two-legged tie, Bayern found themselves in the unusual position of underdogs, and justifiably so. Despite entering the tie, in first place in the Bundesliga table, with an eight-point lead over the reigning champions, Bayern had failed to beat Bayer Leverkusen in any of the previous six encounters.

Before being pitted against each other in the Champions League this season, the two teams had already faced off on three occasions. In the Bundesliga, both teams had to settle for a share of the points. The score was 1-1 in Munich and 0-0 in Leverkusen; on both occasions, the home team was more dominant. In the third encounter, Leverkusen dumped Bayern out of the DFB-Pokal. Die Roten played the majority of that game with ten men after Manuel Neuer was shown the red card for an ill-timed tackle.

Let us take a closer look at what the impressive elimination of Leverkusen from the Champions League means for Vincent Kompany and Bayern Munich.

For Vincent Kompany

When the news broke last summer that Vincent Kompany had been appointed as coach of Bayern Munich, it shocked the footballing world. In the eyes of many, the former Belgian international defender’s appointment was seen as an act of desperation amongst the Bayern chiefs after failed attempts to land the likes of Xavi Alonso, Julian Nagelsmann, and Hanzi Flick amongst others.

Having failed to keep Burnley in the Premier League, at the end of the 23/24 season, after having led them to promotion from the EFL Championship division the year before, the Belgian coach was understandably viewed as not ready for the big leagues by most pundits. As a disciple of Pep Guardiola, he guided Burnley back to the Premier League in the 22/23 season by playing an attacking possession-based style of football reminiscent of the Guardiola way. However, he couldn't sustain the form and style of football in England’s top flight during the 23/24 season.

With roughly two months left in the ongoing 2024/25 season, Kompany is close to reaping the rewards for backing himself in implementing a similarly expansive style of football at Bayern Munich. With just eight matchdays left in the Bundesliga, the record German Champions currently hold a six-point lead over the reigning Champions-Bayer Leverkusen along with a +25 goal difference. Returning the Bundesliga crown to Munich in his first season in charge would be quite a feather in his cap.

Despite experiencing various highs and lows in the league stage of the Champions League Kompany moved one step closer to silencing his critics when Bayern ousted Leverkusen from the tournament. Earlier on in the season, particularly after sobering losses to Aston Villa and Barcelona, Kompany was adjudged, by many, as having no plan B and too stubborn to be tactically flexible. It took him a while to absorb the lessons from Villa Park and Barcelona but in a relatively short space of time, he has learned on the fly and made the necessary adjustments.

In winning the first leg 3-0 at the Allianz Arena, Bayern got the better of Leverkusen for the first time in seven encounters between the two sides, and in doing so Vincent Kompany achieved what both Thomas Tuchel and Julian Nagelsmann failed to do whilst in charge of the Bavarian giants. For doing that and advancing to the quarter-final stage of the competition Kompany deserves a tip of the hat and the full backing of the Bavarian faithful.