MUNICH: On Saturday, striker Harry Kane scored twice as Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich defeated Union Berlin 3-0 to temporarily increase their lead to three points.
In a near-perfect practice match for Wednesday’s Champions League match against Benfica in Munich, the Bavarians won their third straight league game without conceding a goal.
Vincent Kompany’s team is unbeaten in the league, but they have lost two of their three Champions League games so far. They need to beat Benfica to get to the next round of the competition, so they need to win this one.
Kane stated, “The pressure is on in every Champions League game now because we have not started the Champions League well.”
“I think we can cause a lot of problems for any team if we use the confidence with which we have played the last few games. We still have a long way to go, but we have the right mindset and attitude,” Kane stated to Sky.
England captain Kane’s 15th-minute penalty gave Bayern the lead, and Kingsley Coman’s shot past goalkeeper Frederik Ronnow made it 2-0 two minutes before the break.
Throughout the first half, Union failed to make a single shot on goal and were constantly on the back foot, unable to compete with Bayern’s speed and intensity, despite having close to 80 percent possession at times.
Six minutes into the second half, Kane scored his second goal of the afternoon from close range. Union, who had dropped to sixth place on 15 points, was unable to prevent it.
With a low drive late in the game, Kane, who also scored a hat trick against VfB Stuttgart two weeks ago in the Bundesliga, came close to scoring another one. He leads all scorers with 11 league goals this season.
In nine league games, Bayern has scored 32 goals and only given up seven, putting them three points ahead of second-place RB Leipzig.
Later on Saturday, Borussia Dortmund beat Leipzig 2-1 at home to relieve pressure on coach Nuri Sahin, who was under fire.
Dortmund had lost four of their previous five games, including the German Cup defeat by VfL Wolfsburg on Tuesday, their earliest exit in 15 years.
After Dortmund missed several clear chances early on, Benjamin Sesko scored for Leipzig with a shot that bounced off the crossbar after 27 minutes.
Three minutes later, Maximilian Beier scored his first goal for Dortmund since joining in the summer by tapping in a ball inside the box.
With just over half an hour remaining, Serhou Guirassy headed Dortmund ahead with his fifth goal in six league games after Beier looped in a cross.
Today, the manner and style were excellent. Even if we don’t always get there, that’s what we expect of ourselves,” Dortmund captain Emre Can told Sky.
After nine matches, Dortmund moved up to fifth place with 16 points, while Leipzig suffered their first league defeat of the season.
In the meantime, Kane’s main rival on the goal scoring charts, Omar Marmoush, scored one and assisted on two more in Eintracht Frankfurt’s 7-2 victory over Bochum.
In the rout, Hugo Ekitike scored twice, and Marmoush, Ansgar Knauff, Nathaniel Brown, Mahmoud Dahoud, and Can Uzun all scored.
Marmoush has scored ten goals this season, compared to Kane’s eleven, but the Egyptian has six assists—the best in the league—one more than the England captain has.
Six points behind leaders Bayern, Frankfurt has overtaken champions Bayer Leverkusen to move into third place.
After both promoted teams St. Pauli and Holstein Kiel won on Saturday, Bochum now has just one point from nine games and is stuck at the bottom of the table.
With a goal from Patrick Erras, Kiel beat Heidenheim 1-0 at home for their first win in the top division and moved three points ahead of Bochum.
St. Pauli defeated Hoffenheim 2-0, while Wolfsburg and Augsburg drew 1-1 at home.
