Bayern's Harry Kane applauds fans at the end of the Champions League opening phase soccer match between FC Bayern Munich and Chelsea at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
September 17, 2025 - 3:10 PM
BERLIN (AP) — Harry Kane says the Champions League offers more opportunities to score than the Bundesliga after he grabbed two goals in Bayern Munich’s 3-1 win over Chelsea on Wednesday.
The England star tucked away a penalty after he was brought down by Moises Caicedo, then capitalized on teammates’ pressure on Malo Gusto when the ball fell kindly for him to fire inside the far post.
“I always feel like in the Champions League you create maybe more chances than the Bundesliga, the games are maybe a bit more open, and that suits me,” Kane told broadcaster DAZN.
“Hopefully I can get more than 11 this year,” he added, referring to his tally in the Champions League last season.
The 32-year-old Kane has already scored nine goals in five games across all competitions for Bayern so far this season — 10 goals in six games including the German Supercup.
“It’s always the aim to improve and get better,” he said.
Bayern got the scoring underway when Michael Olise forced an own goal from Trevoh Chalobah and might have scored more against a Chelsea team that seemed to fizzle out of energy the longer the game went on.
Cole Palmer responded to Kane’s first goal with a brilliant finish of his own and he also produced a smart finish to beat Manuel Neuer late on, but that score was chalked off for offside after a VAR review.
Otherwise, the visitors had little to cheer after a summer of intense transfer activity, with Bayern getting its third straight win over Chelsea since the clubs met in the 2012 Champions League final when the visitors upset the hosts in Munich.
“Top performance against a really good side,” Kane said. “We spoke before the game that we were playing the club world champions and we had to be on it from the start, and we were.”
Kane said Bayern’s work off-the-ball was key to forcing mistakes from Enzo Maresca’s team.
“I think with the ball possession, making angles, helping each other. You saw me and Serge (Gnabry) drop in quite a lot to make it difficult for them to press. They were always kind of minus one and as the game went on, I felt like they got more tired, the spaces opened up and we were able to exploit that.”
Kane’s second goal came directly from Bayern’s pressure.
“We talk a lot about when the other teams try and play, you know we’re always two or three seconds away from having a chance ourselves,” he said. “You saw that with the pressure and you saw that throughout the whole game. There were opportunities that we had when we won the ball back quickly, so yeah, it kind of fell to me in a nice place and it was a good finish.”
Kane made way in stoppage time for Nicholas Jackson to face his former team. The Senegal forward tried an ambitious effort from distance that drifted wide in the little time he had to make an impact.
Bayern next visits Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
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