Soccer
Harry Kane called on Bayern Munich to push on after a dramatic Champions League quarter-final success over Real Madrid kept their treble hopes alive.
Boasting a 2-1 lead from the first leg in Spain, Bayern were initially rocked as Arda Guler’s brace and a calm finish from Kylian Mbappe gave Madrid a 3-2 half-time lead in Wednesday’s second leg.
With the tie poised at 4-4 on aggregate, Madrid midfielder Eduardo Camavinga was sent off for two bookable offences – the second being an unnecessary caution for timewasting – and Bayern made Los Blancos pay.
Luis Diaz and Michael Olise struck late on to push Bayern into their 22nd European Cup or Champions League semi-final, with only Madrid reaching that stage more often (33).
Bayern’s 4-3 win on the night also made them just the second team to trail on three occasions in a Champions League match and still emerge victorious, after Manchester United against Real Madrid in the 2002-03 quarter-finals (also 4-3), though the Red Devils lost that tie 6-5 on aggregate.
And with a blockbuster meeting with Paris Saint-Germain awaiting Bayern in the last four, Kane says he and his team-mates will relish the coming weeks.
“When you beat a team like Madrid, especially in the later stages of the Champions League, it will give you confidence,” Kane told TNT Sports.
“But we have spoken about this all year, being at this stage and being in all the competitions… this is the time to push on.
“We feel we can beat anyone when at our highest level and we’ll need that in the next round because PSG are one of the best teams in Europe.
“We have a chance to win the league this weekend, so hopefully we can get that done and we have a big semi-final in the cup. There are plenty of big games plenty to play for.”
The England captain scored Bayern’s second goal of the game, taking him to 50 in all competitions this season. He is the first player net 50 times in a single campaign for a team in Europe’s top five leagues since Erling Haaland for Manchester City in 2022-23 (52).
Kane has also scored (three times) or assisted (three) in each of his last five Champions League games against Madrid – the outright longest streak by any player against them.
Madrid were enraged by the decision to send Camavinga off, but Kane said they could have no complaints after the midfielder picked up the ball to prevent a quick restart.
“There were decisions that went against us the whole game and the rules are the rules,” he said when asked about the red card.
“It was a clear yellow card, I’ve had a couple of those in my career that have affected me. The referee has to make a decision there, and it went our way today.”
Olise, who sauntered inside from the right flank before finding the top-left corner for his goal, echoed those sentiments and suggested Bayern would have gone on to win the tie regardless of the sending off.
“It was a good match, back and forth,” he said. “We knew they would try to come back. At first, it was a bit like goal, goal, goal, but eventually when it calmed down, we played a bit better in the second half and we took our chances.
“The red card was late on. We had built momentum before that, the game was going our way. Maybe it helped a bit, but the game was still going how it was going.”
Bayern face Stuttgart in the Bundesliga on Sunday, when they could win the title depending on results elsewhere, before facing Bayer Leverkusen in the DFB-Pokal semi-finals.
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