13 hours ago
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Harry Kane scored a hat-trick after coming on as second-half substitute to guide Bayern Munich to a 5-0 victory at Stuttgart.
The Bavarian club, who have opened up an 11-point lead at the top, were a goal up but struggling against the aggressive hosts until the introduction of Kane on the hour mark. Stuttgart were also left with 10 men for the last 10 minutes after the dismissal of Lorenz Assignon.
Bayern, who host Sporting in the Champions League on Tuesday, were lucky to go into the break with a one-goal lead thanks to Konrad Laimer’s 11th-minute strike. Stuttgart first saw Nikolas Nartey’s header that went in ruled narrowly offside and Chema also came agonisingly close to scoring in stoppage time.
Deniz Undav, who has scored six of Stuttgart’s last eight goals as he battles to reclaim his Germany spot before next year’s World Cup, came even closer with a powerful shot in the 59th that Jonas Urbig in Bayern’s goal tipped over the bar.
The introduction of Kane, however, tipped the balance in the visitors’ favour and the England captain opened his account with a crisp, low drive in the 66th. The Stuttgart keeper Alexander Nübel then let a weak shot from the Bayern substitute Josip Stanisic slip through his hands to make it 3-0 and to make matters worse, Bayern earned an 80th-minute penalty after a handball and red card for Assignon, and Kane easily converted it.
The forward completed his hat-trick from a Michael Olise cutback in the 88th to take his league tally to 17 goals and lift the Bundesliga leaders to 37 points, 11 ahead of second-placed RB Leipzig, in action against Eintracht Frankfurt later.
Kane has now scored a total of 58 goals for club and country so far in 2025, more than he has ever scored before in a calendar year as a professional, with his previous best being 56 in 2017.
“It’s something I’m not used to, but I did it a couple of times this season,” Kane said of his substitute role, with Vincent Kompany eager to give his star striker some rest amid a busy match schedule.
“The boss wanted to keep me fresh and save energy. I came on after 60 minutes with a couple of other guys and we were able to exploit the space and get the goals.
“We had a tough battle in the cup midweek and today we faced one of the best teams in the league away, but we looked stronger in the last half an hour and punished them.” Bayern battled past Union Berlin 3-2 in the German Cup last 16 on Wednesday.
Later on Saturday in Spain, Barcelona will look to put pressure on their rivals as the La Liga leaders visit Real Betis, while Atlético Madrid travel to Bilbao to face Athletic.
In Italy, Inter will look to go top of Serie A overnight when they host Como, but the visitors could go level with the Nerazzurri on points by winning.
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This story will be updated
