Harry Kane made headlines on Tuesday by scoring four goals, bringing his total in the Champions League to 33, surpassing Wayne Rooney’s previous record of 30 goals for an English player in the tournament.
This remarkable achievement contributed to a historic night for both Kane and Bayern Munich, as they triumphed 9-2 over Dinamo Zagreb in their first match of the new Champions League format. Bayern’s nine goals marked a new record for the most goals scored by a single team in a Champions League match. Additionally, Kane set another record, as three of his goals came from the penalty spot.
Kane expressed his excitement saying, “Amazing game, a bit of a crazy game for sure. To score all those goals in the end was a great night. To be honest, after the second [penalty] I didn’t really know what to do with the third one, but thankfully I was able to put it away.”
He started off by converting a penalty to take the lead and match Rooney’s record. Following that, he scored his 31st goal on a rebound, breaking Rooney’s record, and added two more penalties to increase his Champions League tally to 12 goals since joining Bayern a year ago.
Bayern manager Vincent Kompany praised Kane’s motivation, stating, “He is motivated and for me as a coach it is easier because if you have a top player who is himself so motivated it makes things so much easier. He is a leader, captain of the national team. Players like him, they know they have to rise at these moments and that is what he is doing.”
Aside from Kane, goals from Raphael Guerreiro, Michael Olise, Leroy Sane, and Leon Goretzka contributed to Bayern’s record score. Dinamo Zagreb managed to score twice, with goals from Bruno Petkovic and Takuya Ogiwara.
Since his transfer to Bayern, Kane has successfully found the net 53 times in 50 matches across all competitions. He has recently scored nine goals in his last three matches for both club and country, which includes two goals for England against Finland in his 100th international appearance and a hat trick for Bayern against Holstein Kiel in the Bundesliga.
Another milestone was achieved by Thomas Müller, who made his 152nd Champions League appearance for Bayern, setting a record for the most matches played for a single club, overtaking former Barcelona player Xavi Hernandez.
Despite the substantial win, Kompany noted areas for improvement, mentioning that his team, which led 3-0 at halftime, conceded two goals shortly after the break. “We scored nine but we conceded two goals. We conceded those goals because we were a step too late. Still we stayed calmed and then had a good evening,” he added.