Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich have played out a rather tame goalless first half in their DFB-Pokal quarter-final meeting at the BayArena.

The tone was set early on following a quiet opening quarter to the game, with the first real shot not arriving until the 23-minute mark when Karim Bellarabi fired an effort over Manuel Neuer's bar.

Xabi Alonso's corner was latched on to by Thomas Muller as the Bavarian giants began to assert some authority, although his attempt was blocked away inside the area.

Bayern's best chance of the opening 45 minutes fell the way of Muller, but he saw his attempt kept out by Bernd Leno, before Bellarabi fired over a volley up the other end.