ROME: Ciro Immobile sco­r­ed a 69th-minute penalty to earn hosts Lazio a 1-0 victory over 10-man Bayern Munich on Wednesday in their Cham­pions League round-of-16 first-leg clash while Kylian Mbappe and Bradley Barcola scored as Paris St-Germain took a big step towards reaching the quarter-finals with a 2-0 win over Real Sociedad.

Immobile converted his spot-kick after Bayern defen­der Dayot Upamecano’s clumsy challenge on Gustav Isaksen for which the France international was sent off with a straight red card.

Disciplined Lazio stifled the German side’s attacks and Bayern were toothless throu­ghout, failing to get a single effort on target in the match.

The Bavarians, favourites going into the game, were desperate to bounce back from Saturday’s 3-0 Bundesliga loss to leaders Bayer Leverkusen which left them five points off the top.

They will return to Munich with more pressure piling on coach Thomas Tuchel and his team after their second stra­ight defeat. They have failed to score in their last two games.

“We started well had a chance in the first minute and then with Harry Kane and then with Jamal Musiala. We had the game under control in the first half,” Tuchel said. “But in the second our performance dropped inexplicably. We made too many individual errors and made our opponents stronger and we lost concentration. We lost our rhythm.

“It was completely our responsibility. We lost a game today that in the first half looked like we could not lose it.”Bayern created early chances for Joshua Kimmich and Harry Kane, who both narrowly missed the target.

The Italians, who lost 6-2 on aggregate to Bayern at this stage of the competition three years ago, responded with a fierce Luis Alberto strike that flew wide of Manuel Neuer’s goal.

The tempo gradually drop­ped, Bayern struggled with the disciplined Italian back line and had to wait until the 40th minute to threaten again when Musiala fired over the bar from close range.

Lazio should have taken the lead two minutes after the rest­art when Isaksen only had Neu­er to beat but the keeper stood his ground to block his shot.

The Dane won a penalty when Immobile passed to Isak­sen in the box and Upamecano arrived late and stepped on his ankle.

Immobile kept his cool and sent Neuer the wrong way to give Maurizio Sarri’s team the advantage going into the ret­u­rn leg in Munich on March 5.

“We worked and prepared for this match to have a say in it,” said Immobile. “We had some opportunities and we had to be good at exploiting them ahead of the return match and we did just that.”

In the night’s other fixture, the mediocrity of PSG’s first-half performance at the Parc des Princes may have had their supporters fearing anot­her in a long line of disappointing results down the years in the Champions League knockout stages.

But Mbappe, who is expe­cted to leave the club at the end of the season when his contract expires, broke the deadlock from close range just before the hour mark.

Barcola’s well-taken goal in the 70th minute then made it 2-0 to give the French champions a comfortable cushion to take to Spain for the return early next month.

“We managed to score at key moments. We are happy with this first step. There is still a lot of work to do but it is good to be going there with the advantage,” Mbappe told broadcaster Canal Plus.

There was big pressure on PSG coming into this tie after they had gone out in the last 16 of the Champions League in five of the last seven seasons.

Another early exit this season would be a monumental setback for the Qatar-owned club, especially as Sociedad were appearing in their first Champions League knockout tie in two decades.

They also made the trip to Paris having failed to score a goal while failing to win any of their last four games in all competitions.

In addition to that, they were missing captain and top scorer Mikel Oyarzabal as he recovers from injury.

However, an early shot by Mbappe that was beaten away by visiting goalkeeper Alex Remiro was really the only time they threatened in a poor first-half showing.

PSG eventually broke the deadlock on 58 minutes as Ousmane Dembele’s corner from the right was helped on by Marquinhos towards the back post where Mbappe turned it in.

Luis Enrique’s side did find the net again 20 minutes from the end when Barcola collected a ball on the left, skipped away from Hamari Traore on his way into box and then slotted the ball past Remiro for his first ever Champions League goal.

La Real now have something of a mountain to climb when they entertain PSG in San Sebastian on March 5.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2024