Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann has heaped praise on defender Matthijs de Ligt, who he believes “rescued” his side to help the Germans qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Bayern won 2-0 on the night to advance 3-0 on aggregate, but the match was in the balance in the first half when De Ligt blocked Vitinha’s shot and Yann Sommer was caught dribbling in his own penalty area.

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Serge Gnabry scored in the second half to earn Bayern a spot in the quarterfinals.

Instead of praising Sommer’s risk-taking, Nagelsmann lauded De Ligt’s intervention, which altered the course of the game.

“Yann obviously has a good connection with Matthijs,” Nagelsmann quipped. “Nine out of 10 defenders in the world would have left that because they thought it was already in.”

“It was an unbelievable play. He (De Ligt) loves to defend and hates to concede goals,” Nagelsmann added.

“Mistakes happen, but thankfully we have a defender who rescued us.”

Sommer, who arrived in Munich from Borussia Moenchengladbach in January to replace the injured Bayern captain Manuel Neuer, said: “It was outstanding how he rescued me.

“If that went wrong then the game would look different, so we were lucky.”

The Switzerland goalkeeper joked that he had a special reward in mind for De Ligt.

“I’ve told him before once or twice that there’ll be a block of Swiss chocolate sitting on his doorstep for his efforts,” he said.

Photo by EPA/RONALD WITTEK