MUNICH (AP) — Harry Kane scored one of the easier goals of his career as Bayern Munich rallied from a goal down to beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 3-1 in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Bayern stayed two points behind league leader Bayer Leverkusen, which beat Darmstadt 2-0. Bayern and Leverkusen play next week in a game which could play a crucial role in the title race.
Kane scored his 24th Bundesliga goal of the season to give Bayern the lead in the 70th minute. Thomas Müller challenged goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas for a high ball and it went loose, leaving Kane with plenty of space and time to nod it into the net.
Leroy Sané twice missed good chances for Bayern early on but Gladbach took full advantage when Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer played a poor pass, launching a quick attack which ended with Nico Elvedi scoring.
Nineteen-year-old Bayern midfielder Aleksandar Pavlovic leveled the score just before halftime off a one-two with Müller. Pavlovic has started back-to-back Bundesliga games in place of the injured Joshua Kimmich and scored in both.
After Kane’s goal, Matthijs de Ligt made sure of the win with a header in the 86th.
Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel expressed concerned about left back Alphonso Davies after the Canadian twisted his knee against Gladbach. Bayern later said Davies had “suffered a ligament strain in his left knee” and will “face a spell on the sidelines.”
Nathan Tella scored both of Leverkusen’s goals against Darmstadt, the first with a header off Alejandro Grimaldo’s cross and the second off Florian Wirtz’s pass. Striker Borja Iglesias started his first game since signing on loan from Real Betis but had little impact. Leverkusen and coach Xabi Alonso are heading into a busy week, with a German Cup quarterfinal game against Stuttgart on Tuesday before hosting Bayern four days later.
Third-place Stuttgart scored twice in the opening seven minutes on its way to a 3-1 win over 10-man Freiburg. With Stuttgart’s top scorer Serhou Guirassy yet to return from the Africa Cup of Nations, on-loan Brighton forward Deniz Undav scored the opening goal to follow his hat trick last week against Leipzig.
New arrival Mahmoud Dahoud, also on loan from Brighton, came on for Stuttgart off the bench in the 76th.
Hugo Ekitike’s first game for Eintracht Frankfurt on loan from Paris Saint-Germain saw nine-man Frankfurt lose 2-0 to struggling Cologne.
Faride Alidou and Jan Thielmann scored for Cologne, while Frankfurt had Niels Nkounkou and Tuta sent off, both for picking up two yellow cards. Frankfurt is sixth after a setback to its ambitions of qualifying for the Champions League and Cologne is 16th.
Werder Bremen held on for a 1-0 win against Mainz after Marvin Ducksch’s second-minute goal, which came after a Mainz defender blasted a clearance into his own teammate.
Moritz Broschinski scored with a spectacular overhead kick but it wasn’t enough for Bochum to take all three points in a 1-1 draw with Augsburg, which leveled with a stoppage-time penalty.
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