March 11, (THEWILL) — Vincent Kompany’s Bayern Munich moved firmly towards the Champions League quarter-finals, overwhelming Atalanta 6-1 in the first leg of their last-16 tie at New Balance Arena.
Michael Olise was the night’s outstanding figure, scoring twice and setting up a further goal to drive the Bundesliga leaders to a commanding… decisive advantage. Josip Stanisic, Serge Gnabry, Nicolas Jackson and Jamal Musiala were also on target in a ruthless team display.
Bayern needed only 12 minutes to break the deadlock, catching Atalanta flat-footed from a short corner before Gnabry rolled the ball into Stanisic’s path for a simple finish inside the six-yard box. Olise then bent a curling effort into the bottom-left corner on 22 minutes, cutting in from the right. Three minutes later, Gnabry lifted the ball over the advancing Marco Carnesecchi after being played in behind the defence by Olise.
The onslaught continued after the interval. Jackson rounded off a swift counter-attack in the 52nd minute following Nicola Zalewski’s blocked free-kick, before Olise curled in his second just after the hour. Substitute Musiala tucked home the sixth in the 67th minute, converting Jackson’s cross into the area.
Atalanta reduced the deficit in the third minute of second-half stoppage time through Mario Pasalic, who prodded the ball home after Jonas Urbig had kept out Nikola Krstovic’s initial effort. The margin of defeat, however, leaves the Italian side with a mountain to climb in the return fixture.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
