Champions League | Harry Kane scores to lead Bayern Munich over Galatasaray 3-1

Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala celebrates a goal with Harry Kane during the UEFA Champions League match against Galatasary on October 24, 2023
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Harry Kane scored a crucial goal to help Bayern Munich earn its 16th straight win in the group stage of the Champions League with a 3-1 victory over Galatasaray.

Kane made little impact until late in the second half but he was there when needed to score the team’s second goal. The England captain first tried a flashy backheel off Jamal Musiala’s low cross but the ball hit defender Sacha Boey. It then bounced favorably for Kane to score with his second effort in the 73rd minute.

Soon after, Musiala scored the third to take the game out of Galatasaray’s reach.

Kingsley Coman had scored early for Bayern but the German team was under pressure from Galatasaray for much of the game. The Turkish team had more shots — 20 to 14— while Bayern was mostly a threat on the counter until the goals from Kane and Musiala turned the game around.

Bayern leads Group A with a perfect nine points at the halfway stage and hasn’t dropped a point in group play since 2020. Bayern has gone 37 games unbeaten since its loss in the group stage in 2017. Just like the 2-1 win over Copenhagen in Bayern’s last Champions League game, the German champions had to dig deep for a win in an away game where they were the favorites.

In front of a vocal home ground in Turkey, Coman gave injury-depleted Bayern the lead in the eighth minute off a pass from Leroy Sané, but Galatasaray had the better of the first half.

The Turkish champions twice went close from shots by Kerem Aktürkoglu, who had an acrobatic volley saved by Bayern goalkeeper Sven Ulreich and then sent the ball over the bar when Ulreich’s error gifted him an open goal.

Galatasaray striker Mauro Icardi was playing despite an ankle injury and got his team back into the game. Bayern midfielder Joshua Kimmich lunged in with a late challenge on Icardi to give away a penalty which the Argentine converted in the 30th.

Icardi could have scored again shortly before halftime when Kimmich gave the ball away on the edge of his own penalty area, but the Argentine’s shot went wide of the post. At the other end, Sané was the main threat on the counterattack but twice failed to get a shot away from good positions.

Bayern took control of the game in the final half hour and gradually increased the pressure on Galatasaray’s defense before Kane and Musiala’s goals.

Manchester United beat Copenhagen 1-0 in the later Group A match Tuesday for the English team’s first points of the group stage.