Bayern Munich started their 2025/26 Champions League campaign on the right note with a well-deserved 3-1 victory in front of a charged home crowd at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday night.
Early on, without troubling Manuel Neuer too much in the Bayern goal, the Club World Cup Champions looked the more dangerous team in the final third. However, that all changed midway through the first half when Michael Olise’s inviting cross from the right resulted in an own goal from Chelsea center-back Trevoh Chalobah. From then on, the Bavarian giants took control of the game.
Harry Kane converted a spot kick soon after to double Bayern’s lead. Although Cole Palmer halved the deficit before the half-time whistle, Kane scored his second and Bayern’s third goal just after the hour mark.
From an entertaining game in which the German Champions created more chances and committed fewer errors than their English opponents, let’s take a look at three Bayern players who greatly influenced the outcome of the match.
Harry Kane
After being hauled down in the box, Harry Kane dusted himself off and converted the resultant spot kick to give Bayern a healthy 2-0 lead before half an hour had been played. In the second half, following a Chelsea turnover, he completed his brace by exquisitely bending the ball into the bottom-right corner.
Harry Kane’s brace proved to be the difference in the match in terms of the final score. However, apart from his two goals, the 32-year-old striker was once again the most impressive player on the pitch. In the second half, with the score still at 2-1, the England Captain did his Konrad Laimer impersonation with a slick run through the inside-right channel before cutting the ball back to a wide-open Michael Olise. Unfortunately, and rather surprisingly, Kane was denied the assist when Olise struck the ball within an arm’s length of the goalkeeper with half the goal to aim for.
Apart from scoring twice, along with the near assist from only 36 touches, Kane’s all-round excellence was also highlighted by his work off the ball. The England Captain completed four recoveries and won all three of his aerial duels and three of six contested ground duels.