Harry Kane edged closer to Robert Lewandowski’s iconic Bundesliga single-season goals record as Bayern Munich swept aside Union Berlin 4-0 at the Allianz Arena on Saturday, extending their lead at the top of the table to 12 points with seven games remaining.
Serge Gnabry bagged a brace and Michael Olise also got on the scoresheet as Bundesliga leaders Bayern went 12 clear of Borussia Dortmund, who can trim the gap to nine points with a win at home to Hamburg in the day’s late game.
Union Berlin defended with intent in the early stages, holding out until the 43rd minute when Olise collected a punted Leon Goretzka pass and curled the ball into the top corner to break the deadlock. Gnabry made it two just before halftime, slotting in at the far post after a goalmouth scramble. Kane pirouetted and curled in Bayern’s third just after the break, before Gnabry volleyed in a fourth with 67 minutes gone to add gloss to another dominant Bayern performance.
Kane’s second-half goal took him to 31 goals this campaign — the same number Union have scored all season — and 10 short of Robert Lewandowski’s mark from 2020-21, with seven games to play. The England captain was unfazed by the scale of the task ahead. “It’s still possible, I just have to keep doing what I’m doing,” he said. “All it takes is a hat-trick or a couple of braces in a row and then it’ll look a bit more likely.”
Coach Vincent Kompany made five changes from the side that had thumped Atalanta on Wednesday to set up a Champions League quarter-final clash with Real Madrid, but kept Kane front and centre. The Bavarian powerhouse was also without three suspended players — Nicolas Jackson, Luis Díaz, and Jonathan Tah — while Jamal Musiala, Alphonso Davies, and regular goalkeeper Manuel Neuer were all injured.
Bayern now have 97 goals this season, just four short of the best mark set in 1971-72, when Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller helped the Bavarian giants tear through the Bundesliga. The club appear on course to smash multiple records before the season is out.
Elsewhere in the Bundesliga, last-placed Heidenheim twice came from behind to draw 3-3 with Bayer Leverkusen, and Werder Bremen beat Wolfsburg 1-0 through Justin Njinmah’s goal, pushing their hosts closer to what would be a first ever Bundesliga relegation.
