Eze and Rice fire Arsenal past Leverkusen into quarter-finals

Last 16 2nd Leg

Arsenal 2-0 Bayer Leverkusen (Agg. 3-1)

Goals from Eberechi Eze and Declan Rice helped Arsenal comfortably beat Bayer Leverkusen as the Gunners secured their place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Arsenal will play Sporting in the last eight after the Portuguese side staged a dramatic comeback from 3-0 down before kick-off to put five past Bodo/Glimt.

The Gunners came into this tie level on aggregate with the Germans, after Kai Havertz’s late penalty last week secured a 1-1 draw, and they did not let Leverkusen settle in the first half.

Arsenal twice went close through Gabriel from trademark corners with Leverkusen goalkeeper Janis Blaswich making excellent saves to keep the game scoreless.

But there was nothing Blaswich could do about the opener, when Eze controlled the ball on the edge of the area and swivelled before powering the ball high into the net for his first goal in the Champions League.

Arsenal picked up from where they left off in the second half and Rice wrapped up the tie when he ran onto a Leverkusen clearance and calmly placed the ball into the bottom corner.

With the game won, Mikel Arteta was able to give some of his key players a rest before the Gunners take on Manchester City in the Carabao Cup Final at Wembley on Sunday.

This confidence-boosting win was ideal for Arsenal before their first opportunity of silverware against Manchester City at the weekend.

Eze looks to be finding his feet as Arsenal’s number 10 while captain Martin Odegaard is out injured and his superb strike will only further increase his confidence as the big games keep coming at this stage of the season.

Arteta spoke before this game about how the experience of previous Champions League ties will help his team as they look to become serial contenders in the competition.

The Gunners boss has transformed the club since he took over in 2019 and this victory over Leverkusen was their 14th in 17 home games in the Champions League under the Spaniard.

The next step for this impressive team, who have only lost three games in all competitions this season, is to add trophies.

The first chance Arsenal have to break their six-year trophy drought is on Sunday and they will hope that, if they are victorious against City, that it will push them on to win more than one competition this season.

Arsenal play against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup Final on Sunday at Wembley (16:30 GMT), while Bayer Leverkusen return to Bundesliga action and play Heidenheim on Saturday (14:30 GMT)

Tonight’s other Champions League results:

• Sporting CP 5-0 FK Bodø/Glimt (Agg. 5-3)
• Chelsea 0-3 Paris Saint Germain (Agg. 2-8)
• Manchester City 1-2 Real Madrid (Agg. 1-5)