Lennart Karl steals in behind Atlético Madrid to inspire Bayern Munich win

“This stadium brings back bad memories but I hope to be able to replace them with good ones,” Harry Kane had said on Monday night, and 24 hours later this was a start. A small step, perhaps, towards coming back on 5 June and having a second go at winning the Champions League in the arena where he lost the 2019 final. On his first European outing since winning the Ballon d’Or, the England captain was unable to score but he and his Bayern Munich team defeated Atlético Madrid, fellow semi-finalists from last season. They did so in a way that suggests that their candidacy this season is serious.

It may not have been sparkling but they had been superior almost from the start, dominant in physique and football. This is a team with few weaknesses, intense and impressive throughout. All Atlético could do was resist and it never truly felt like they would be able to do that for ninety minutes; ultimately, they lasted 54. That was when Lennart Karl scored the first. The superb Konrad Laimer then added the second on a night when they racked up nineteen shots. It had been heavy going for a while, and they had been made to wait, but in the end Bayern were just that bit too good.

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