Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane scored four goals in Tuesday’s big win against Dinamo Zagreb.
Alexandra BEIER
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Quotes from ADDS Kompany
Harry Kane scored four goals, including three penalties, as Bayern Munich beat Dinamo Zagreb 9-2 at home on Tuesday, becoming the first team to score nine goals in a Champions League match.
Kane opened the scoring with a 19th-minute penalty and added a second-half hat-trick to take his tally to 33 Champions League goals, more than any other Englishman, surpassing Wayne Rooney’s mark of 30.
Behind the comfortable result lay a difficult period after the break, when Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was out injured and Zagreb recovered, scoring two goals in two minutes and reducing the gap to 3-2 after five minutes of the second half.
Former Crystal Palace striker Michael Olise scored a brace on his Champions League debut, while Raphael Guerreiro, Leroy Sane and Leon Goretzka also scored for Bayern.
“An incredible game – a bit of a crazy game,” Kane told DAZN.
“It’s the first time I’ve scored three (penalties) in a game. That doesn’t really happen at all.”
“I practice my penalties, I have a good routine, but to be honest I didn’t really know what to do with the third one, but luckily I was able to score.”
Kane said Bayern had “got away” with their second-half slip-up, but “against a top opponent we can be punished for it, so we have to get it under control.”
Bayern head coach Vincent Kompany celebrated a record victory on his debut as Champions League coach.
“I’m just happy for the boys. They scored the goals, I didn’t score any,” a smiling Kompany told DAZN.
The former Manchester City captain praised his team’s mentality, saying: “We conceded two goals but stayed calm. It’s not ideal – I already know what happened and how we need to work on it.”
“We need to have more control, but that will come.”
The six-time Champions League winners had won each of their last 20 opening games in the competition since the 2002/03 season.
The result is one goal better than Bayern’s record 8-2 win over Barcelona in the quarter-finals of the 2020 competition.
The clear victory gave the German top club more than just bragging rights. In the new single-league format of the Champions League, goal difference may be even more important.
Bayern dominated the match at first, but their performance went unrewarded: goals from Jamal Musiala and Serge Gnabry were disallowed due to close offside positions until the video referee spotted a foul on Aleksandar Pavlovic and sent Kane to the penalty spot.
The England captain converted the penalty, sending Ivan Nevistic the wrong way, and Bayern then took control of the game late in the first half, scoring two goals in five minutes.
In the 33rd minute, Guerreiro converted a superb chest pass from Musiala before Olise headed in a Joshua Kimmich corner on his Champions League debut.
Neuer, who had ventured close to the halfway line in the opening minutes to prevent a counterattack from Zagreb, was substituted at half-time and this change seemed to scare the home team.
Bruno Petkovic’s goal in the 48th minute came out of nowhere when the captain capitalised on Ronael Pierre-Gabriel’s pass.
When Takuya Ogiwara scored on the counterattack just two minutes later, home fans wondered if the stumbles of last season – when Bayern failed to win a trophy for the first time in eleven seasons – were flaring up again.
Kane was next to score, however, and his three strikes in 22 second-half minutes took his total for Bayern to 53 goals in 50 games, while a second goal from Olise and goals from Sane and Goretzka secured a dominant win for the home side.
Two-time Champions League winner Thomas Müller came on as a second-half substitute for his 152nd appearance in the competition – the most for a single club – overtaking Barcelona’s Xavi.
