- Home >
- Football >
- UEFA Champions League >
- Arsenal 2-0 Bayer Leverkusen (3-1 agg): Eze scores stunner to seal Champions League progression
Arsenal 2-0 Bayer Leverkusen (3-1 agg): Eze scores stunner to seal Champions League progression
Arsenal's hopes of winning their maiden Champions League title were buoyed as they progressed past Bayer Leverkusen into the last eight.
Eberechi Eze's stunner helped Arsenal seal a 3-1 aggregate win over Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League last 16, with the Gunners triumphing 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium.
Declan Rice added an impressive goal of his own in the second half following Eze's opener, while both goalkeepers made brilliant saves at either end as Arsenal booked their spot in the quarter-finals, where they will face Sporting CP.
Janis Blaswich was busy in the opening 45 minutes, first pushing away a powerful effort from Leandro Trossard before denying Bukayo Saka's near-post strike from the right side of the box.
The Leverkusen goalkeeper made an incredible save with his right leg to stop Trossard's effort in the box, but Blaswich could do nothing about Eze's thunderous volley from distance in the 36th minute.
Trossard continued to threaten after the break, curling narrowly wide of the top-right corner from close to 25 yards out, though Rice eased any remaining nerves in north London as he intercepted a poor clearance before firing in from the edge of the box.
Leverkusen did not give up and Christian Kofane forced a strong save from David Raya in the closing minutes, but the Gunners held on to their clean sheet and victory to secure progression into the next round.
Data Debrief: Arsenal's English contingency shine
The Gunners were deserved winners in the second leg, producing 1.75 expected goals from 21 shots to Leverkusen's 0.52 xG from nine attempts, and Arsenal's England stars were in fine form.
Saka registered the joint-most shots (five) and created the most chances (five), while Eze created three chances (second-most) and Rice won five of his six duels.
Eze is also the second English player to score for Arsenal in the Premier League, League Cup, FA Cup and Champions League in the same season, after Theo Walcott in 2012-13.
And in Eze and Rice, Arsenal had two English players score in the same Champions League match for the first time since October 2016 (Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain versus Ludogorets).


.png?ver=03-06-2025?w=64&q=75)










