Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich: Wasteful Bavarians take slender advantage to Germany

Both teams traded spells of dominance, but Bayern Munich shaded it, beating Real Madrid 2-1 at Santiago Bernabéu to secure an advantage ahead of the second-leg in eight days.

Luis Diaz and Harry Kane scored in either half to give Vincent Kompany's side a healthy two-goal advantage in a historically tough away ground.

However, inspired substitutions from Alvaro Arbeloa helped Los Blancos stem the tide and halve the deficit through Kylian Mbappe, who got on the end of an inch-perfect delivery from Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Bayern Munich may come to regret the many botched positive attacking situations during the contest, but the slender advantage gives them a cushion ahead of the return leg at Allianz Arena on Wednesday, April 15.

Bayern Munich signalled their attacking intent from the opening whistle, suffocating Real Madrid's midfield. 

The visitors should have taken an early lead when Kane perfectly guided a free-kick across the face of the goal, but Dayot Upamecano completely mis-hit his shot from inside the six-yard box, allowing Carreras to scramble it off the line. 

While Real Madrid showed flashes of danger on the counter-attack, with Vinícius Júnior and Kylian Mbappé forcing sharp early saves, their looseness at the back ultimately invited disaster.

The breakthrough arrived in the 41st minute when Luis Díaz capitalised on lax defending from Arnold to fire the visitors into a deserved 1-0 lead and silence the home crowd heading into the interval.

The situation rapidly deteriorated for the 15-time Champions League winners merely seconds after the restart. In the 46th minute, Bayern orchestrated a slick team move that saw Michael Olise pick out Harry Kane at the edge of the box. 

The English talisman thumped a clinical strike into the bottom right corner, doubling the advantage and marking his staggering 49th goal of the season across all competitions.

Staring down a daunting 2-0 deficit, Arbeloa turned to his bench, introducing Jude Bellingham and Éder Militão to replace youngsters Thiago Pitarch and Dean Huijsen. 

The shift handed Madrid more control, and they finally found their lifeline in the 74th minute. Following a clever overlapping run, Arnold found Mbappe in the box, who ghosted behind his marker to beat the seemingly impervious Neuer. 

The goal instantly ignited the Bernabéu, sparking a ferocious late siege as Madrid threw bodies forward in search of parity.

Despite the relentless late pressure, Neuer rolled back the years with an absolute goalkeeping masterclass. The 40-year-old veteran produced a string of massive interventions and commanded his area brilliantly to protect the lead, eventually earning an 82nd-minute yellow card for time-wasting.