Harry Kane hits hat-trick off bench as five-star Bayern brush Stuttgart aside
Harry Kane scored a hat-trick off the bench as Bayern Munich produced a ruthless second-half display to cruise past Stuttgart at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
Stuttgart 0-5 Bayern Munich
Goals: 0-1 Laimer 11’ (assist: Olise), 0-2 Kane 66’ (assist: Kimmich), 0-3 Stanišić 78’ (assist: Díaz), 0-4 Kane 82’ pen., 0-5 Kane 88’ (assist: Olise)
Red card: Assignon 81’
Bayern arrived in Stuttgart looking to maintain their handsome lead over second-placed RB Leipzig at the top of the Bundesliga, while the home side were hoping to bounce back from their 2-1 defeat at Hamburg last weekend.
The visitors started brightly and Nicolas Jackson almost put Bayern ahead inside five minutes, firing into the side-netting from a tight angle. Vincent Kompany's team did not have to wait long to find a breakthrough, though, as Konrad Laimer exchanged passes with Michael Olise before cleverly backheeling the ball past Alexander Nübel.
Stuttgart responded well, though, and thought they had equalised shortly before half-time when Nikolas Nartey headed home from Bilal El Khannouss's free-kick, but after a lengthy VAR review the goal was disallowed for offside. Chema Andrés then came agonisingly close to levelling in first-half stoppage time, but his effort from Nartey's cut-back whistled just wide.
Both sides traded chances after the break, with Olise firing over for Bayern and Deniz Undav having a shot deflected over the bar by Minjae Kim. There was little to choose between the sides at that stage, but Kane needed just six minutes to get his name on the scoresheet after replacing Jackson on the hour mark, picking up a loose ball 25 yards out and arrowing a thunderous low drive into the bottom corner past Nübel.
As Stuttgart pushed forward in search of a goal back, Bayern ruthlessly exploited the spaces left behind by Sebastian Hoeneß's charges. Josip Stanišić squeezed a low shot past Nübel to make it 3-0, before the visitors were awarded a penalty when Lorenz Assignon handled Olise's goal-bound effort on the line.
Assignon was shown a straight red card and Kane dispatched the spot-kick with typical precision to make it 4-0. He then completed his hat-trick two minutes from time by converting another Olise assist from close range.
Player of the Match: Harry Kane
Kane delivered a masterclass in clinical finishing to score his tenth Bundesliga hat-trick for the Bundesliga leaders.
The frontman's remarkable cameo took him to 17 league goals for the season and earned him 75 percent of the votes in the Player of the Match poll.
Bundesliga Match Facts
xGoals: Stuttgart 0.79 - Bayern 3.08
Fastest player: Jamie Leweling (Stuttgart), 34.84 km/h
Lowest goal probability: 0-2 by Harry Kane (Bayern), 3 percent
Most pressed player: Michael Olise (Bayern), 34 times under pressure
Pass efficiency: Maximilian Mittelstädt (Stuttgart), +3.14
Fantasy Heroes: Harry Kane (Bayern, 464 Points), Michael Olise (Bayern, 319 Points), Josip Stanišić (Bayern, 246 Points)
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