Vincent Kompany believes that Bayern Munich Talisman Harry Kane has become better with the age after he helped them to illuminate the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Kane opened the score in the 52nd minute of their round of 16 second legs with Bayer Leverkusen before he set up Alphonso Davies to seal a 5-0 aggregated victory.
He has now been directly involved in 24 goals in 23 Champions League performances for Bayern (18 goals, six assists), the most player since the start of the last term.
Kane is only the second Englishman who has been involved in 50+ goals in the competition (39 goals, 11 assists), together with David Beckham (52- 16 goals, 36 assists).
The second half of the captain of the English captain was also his 10th goal of the competition and became the very first English player ever to reach double digits in a single edition of the European Cup of Champions League.
The 31-year-old now has 32 goals and 11 assists in 36 performances in all competitions, which earns praise from Kompany after the full-time whistle.
“It helps when you have a top player who wants to run and fight for the team as a youth player,” said Kanom about Kane during the press conference after the game.
“I played against him like an opponent and he got better with age. He has a way to work towards his performances.
“I trust his consistency and how he works on his game and with that quality you always get your moments.”
10 – Harry Kane is the very first English player who scores 10 goals in a single European Cup/UEFA Champions League campaign. Exceptional. pic.twitter.com/46KSK1882R
– Optajoe (@Optajoe) March 11, 2025
Kane, who also scored twice in the first stage against Leverkusen, helped to seal a quarter -final date against Serie A Leaders Inter, who beat Feyenoord on Tuesday.
“A big compliment for the boys who delivered this version,” said Kompany. “These two victories over Leverkusen are important to us.”
Prior to last week's victory last week, Bayern had not succeeded in beating reigning Bundesliga champions Leverkusen in their previous six games in all games.
Leverkusen also eliminated Bayern in the DFB Pokal, but Kompany's side reacted in an explicit way with a dominant total victory.
Indeed, their 5-0 aggregated victory was the largest in an all-German draw in the knockout phase of a European competition since 1998-99, when Bayern himself won 6-0 in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League against Kaiserslautern (2-0 at home, 4-0 away).
It was also the toughest defeat of Leverkusen against zero in total in a European knockout stage. Only against Barcelona in 2011-12 were they defeated by a larger general margin in the knockout phase of a European competition (2-10 in total in the Champions League last 16).
“These two wins, they don't determine the season, but we have a lot of respect for Leverkusen. We did our work,” said Kompany.
“We did well in the first 20 minutes and had the better chances. Our goal was to win the first half and then win the second half, and we did.”
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