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Bayern Munich’s record signing, Harry Kane, seeks to leave his mark on this fixture like his predecessor Robert Lewandowski.
Harry Kane may never match or surpass Robert Lewandowski’s Der Klassiker 32-goal tally — 27 for Bayern Munich and five at Borussia Dortmund — but the record-setting striker could still have a significant effect in the fixture.
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08:47 - 29.10.2023
Harry Kane finally ends bizarre wait for Bayern Munich hat-trick after running riots against Darmstadt
Harry Kane went home with the match ball, on the second time of asking, after registering his first official hat-trick in the Bundesliga for Bayern Munich.
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16:54 - 27.09.2023
Boniface or Kane: Who has had the better Bundesliga start?
The Nigerian and Englishman have taken the German topflight by storm, with Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich excitingly neck and neck going into gameweek six.
The 'Harry Kane curse’?
For all the talk of the ‘Harry Kane curse’ that has resurfaced since Bayern Munich’s shock DFB-Pokal second round exit at Saarbrucken on Wednesday, the Englishman has got bigger fish to fry in Bavaria.
In the moment, the schadenfreude at Kane’s expense could be fun for those interested in that sort of thing. After all, the England captain left Tottenham Hotspur to compete and possibly win titles with Bayern.
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The season is not at its halfway point, but Thomas Tuchel’s side suffering a 3-0 beatdown by RB Leipzig in the German Super Cup and the cup exit in Saarland mean Die Bayern have two titles to fight for — the Bundesliga and the Champions League.
Given the emergence of Bayer Leverkusen and the uncertainty in Europe, Bayern could end the season without a trophy for the first time since 2011-12, the campaign preceding the Bavarians’ 11-year Bundesliga dominance.
If Spurs do the unthinkable in the Premier League, Kane will be derided for what is undoubtedly no fault of his.
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19:41 - 11.10.2023
‘No team I want to win the Premier League more’- Harry Kane praises Ange Postecoglou's revamped Tottenham
Harry Kane, who left the team in the summer, has praised Ange Postecoglou's achievements at Tottenham.
The noise around Kane’s ‘lack of ambition’ to stay at Spurs was irritatingly deafening at times, with observers piling on the striker, who lost out with the Lilywhites in the 2015 League Cup decider and in 2019's Champions League final, years after Mauricio Pochettino’s talented group could have won the Premier League title.
Missing out on success with England has also stung, with the Three Lions coming close at the last European Championship and making do with fourth place at the 2018 World Cup.
The Bayern switch was reasonable, given the ambition to challenge for the top honours.
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Harry Kane’s outstanding start at Bayern
The Englishman could have signed for Bayern for the single purpose of reclaiming the Bundesliga title from Borussia Dortmund, only for BVB to contrive to blow their aspirations at home to Mainz on the concluding weekend of last season.
Unsatisfied with claiming the title on goal difference, Tuchel’s team moved for one of Europe’s best strikers, capable of providing menace in the opposition penalty box and inclined to fashion scoring chances for teammates.
The striker’s big-money transfer was recognition of Bayern’s ambition to pull away from the chasing pack domestically, compete in Europe and do away with Julian Nagelsmann’s wont to spread the goals across his attack after Lewandowski departed for Barcelona.
So far, so good for Kane, whose blistering start has produced 12 league goals in nine gameweeks and two in Europe.
The Englishman became the fastest man to hit double figures in their first nine Bundesliga appearances in the competition’s history with his first against Darmstadt, and he added a further two for good measure — including an audacious one from inside Bayern’s half.
According to Opta, this is Kane’s best start to any campaign, considering goals (12) and goal involvements (17), and there is a feeling the 30-year-old is just getting started.
He is behind only Stuttgart’s Serhou Guirassy for match-winning goals (5-3) and is on pace to surpass Uwe Seeler’s 30-goal return in a debut Bundesliga season. Considering Seeler’s return came in a 16-team division (30 games), a comparison with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s 29-goal debut season in 2011-12 feels fitting.
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Kane needs 19 goals in what is left of the campaign to surpass the German and 18 to outdo Huntelaar, an eventuality that seems likely if there is no significant plummet in his current scoring rate. Indeed, the Bayern centre-forward could reduce that margin with another decisive showing in Saturday’s Der Klassiker.
Can Harry Kane sparkle in Der Klassiker like Robert Lewandowski?
It took a year, but Kane is Lewandowski’s replacement at Sabener Strasse after Nagelsmann’s desire for a rounded attack with goals spread across multiple attackers failed to take off.
Jettisoned after a season, Bayern have someone to lean on to decide tight games by scoring or assisting, something Lewandowski did all too well, especially by putting the ball in the back of the net.
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The Poland striker strikingly left his mark on Der Klassiker, particularly after switching sides following a free transfer in the wake of the 2013 Champions League final between both clubs.
Only one of Lewandowski’s five goals as a Dortmund player came in the league, although the Pole did score a stunning treble in the 5-2 Pokal final in 2012.
The striker was a thorn in BVB’s side in Bayern colours, scoring 23 Bundesliga goals in 16 appearances and a further four in domestic competitions. No player has scored more (24) in the fixture, while no Bayern player comes close to Lewandowski’s 23 league strikes against Dortmund.
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Most of those were pivotal strikes, with the ex-Bayern centre-forward netting six game-clinching goals when he faced his old side in the league, only failing to score in three of 16 Bundesliga meetings.
Kane already has game-deciding expertise against Dortmund with Spurs, having netted twice in a 3-1 group stage win in 2017-18 and a 1-0 round of 16 triumph en route to that 2019 Champions League final. Tuchel will hope for similar on Saturday, with Bayern keen to win their ninth Bundesliga game in the last 10 Der Klassiker fixtures.
Kane is unlikely to surpass Lewandowski’s numbers against the Black and Yellows, but there is time to land a few jabs on BVB.
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