Kane’s Champions League trophy hopes hang by a thread
Longtime Tottenham star leads Bayern Munich vs. old nemesis Arsenal
Harry Kane moved to Bayern Munich in the hope — maybe even the expectation — of finally winning a first trophy of his career.
Arsenal, the England captain’s old foe, could ensure that long wait goes on for at least another season.
The Champions League remains Bayern’s last hope of silverware in a difficult season that has seen Germany’s grandest club dominated by Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga and eliminated by third-division Saarbruecken in the second round of the German Cup.
Bayern’s opponent in the Champions League quarterfinals is Arsenal, pitting Kane against a team he considered his fiercest rival during a 19-year stint with Tottenham that came to an end in August.
The first leg is in London on Tuesday, when Kane will no doubt be the target of jeers from 60,000 Arsenal fans — there’ll be no Bayern supporters inside Emirates Stadium for disciplinary reasons — and the biggest threat to Arsenal’s defenders.
“It’ll be very enjoyable for Harry to be here against Arsenal in a Champions League quarterfinal,” Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel said on Monday at a news conference at the Emirates. “It will make him very happy to score — I don’t see anything holding him back.
“I feel him very motivated. Harry always helps you to win, in any team — for England, Tottenham and now for us.”
The respect Arsenal has for Kane was abundantly clear.
“For me, personally, he is the best finisher in the world,” Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus said.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said Kane’s consistency was his greatest strength — and knows all about that. After all, the striker has 14 goals in 17 games against Arsenal in all competitions, making the Gunners one of his favorite opponents.
Among Kane’s numerous individual honors are Golden Boots in the English Premier League as well as the World Cup in 2018. Kane, meanwhile, is the second highest-scoring player in Premier League history with 213 and already has 32 league goals this season for Bayern, which he joined in August in a deal worth more than 100 million euros ($110 million).
“When you look at his numbers over the last 10 years, it is unbelievable what he has done,” Arteta said of Kane. “He can score in many different ways. He has the service and has the players around him, as well.”
In his latter years at Tottenham, Kane — the all-time top scorer for England — mastered the art of dropping deeper and being more involved in the team’s buildup play, too.
“It’s really easy to play with him because he is an intelligent player,” Bayern winger Leroy Sane said. “He knows how his teammates around him play — he is trying to use them for his own game but to help his team, too.”
Arteta was asked if he had spoken to Xabi Alonso, his fellow Spaniard who is in charge of runaway Bundesliga leader Leverkusen, for any tips on how to stop Kane and Bayern.
“Great question!” Arteta said. “I’m not going to answer that.”
REAL MADRID-MAN CITY: One of the Champions League’s newest rivalries resumes this week when Real Madrid hopes to take advantage of extended rest in Tuesday’s quarterfinal against Manchester City.
Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti, entering his record-extending 200th Champions League match, has had eight full days to prepare his squad for facing Pep Guardiola’s Man City for the third straight year in the knockout rounds.
City, meanwhile, played on Saturday at Crystal Palace in the English Premier League and Guardiola wasn’t happy about the considerable difference in the teams’ preparation time. Madrid’s last Spanish league match was on March 31, a 2-0 win at Athletic Bilbao. Madrid didn’t play this past weekend as it was reserved in the
Spanish calendar for the Copa del Rey final.
“Maybe they have a bit of an advantage in this sense,” City midfielder Rodri said on Monday. “Let’s see how the team responds physically. Of course we would like to rest like them, but it’s something that doesn’t worry us.”
Ancelotti said he was not going to make any “rare” changes to his team or try anything too different tactically because of the extra time he had to prepare.
“It is an incredibly attractive match,” he said. “The quality of both sides will allow us to watch a beautiful match at a technical level. We think we will be better than City in some aspects and they think they will be better than us in others.”
Madrid eliminated City two seasons ago with a late comeback in the second leg of the semifinals at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, where it hasn’t lost in 27 straight games in all competitions dating to last April.
But City got the better of Madrid last season, advancing after a 4-0 rout in the second leg of the semifinals at home. Both clubs went on to win the Champions League title after eliminating their rival.
The last four matches between them produced 17 goals in total. They will have faced each other 12 times in 12 years after this season’s quarterfinals. So far there are four wins for City and three for Madrid, with three draws.
Both teams are trying to reach the semifinals for the fourth straight time.