Harry Kane vs the Champions League’s meanest defence: Can Bayern Munich’s free-scoring forward shoot down Simone Inzaghi’s still-underrated Inter?

Harry Kane vs the Champions League’s meanest defence: Can Bayern Munich’s free-scoring forward shoot down Simone Inzaghi’s still-underrated Inter?

The Englishman is on fire again this season but he’s about to run into a side that is still not getting the credit it deserves

Harry Kane is so close now. With Bayern Munich six points clear at the top of the Bundesliga and just six rounds remaining, the curse should soon be broken. Still, while a German title would doubtless mean more to Kane than any of his team-mates, given how long he’s had to wait to finally get his hands on a major trophy, the striker freely admits that winning the Champions League has always been his ultimate objective.

“It’s something I’ve dreamt about practically my entire life,” the England captain told Sky Sport Italia ahead of Bayern’s eagerly-awaited quarter-final clash with Inter. “Doing it at our home stadium would make it even more special, so I think it’s brilliant to have the chance to do something like this. But first, we have two big, tough matches ahead of us against Inter.”

It’s just as well that Kane is acutely aware of the threat posed by the Nerazzurri to Bayern’s hopes of being crowned champions of Europe at the Allianz Arena on May 31, because countless other opponents and pundits have been made to look foolish for underestimating a side that Simone Inzaghi says still aren’t getting the credit they deserve…

AFP’I hear very little praise from elsewhere’Inter progressed to the quarter-finals of this season’s Champions League with a 4-1 aggregate win over Feyenoord in the last 16.The Dutch side had upset AC Milan in the play-off round but never looked remotely capable of springing another surprise against their city rivals, which perhaps explains why Inter’s progression wasn’t exactly big news in Italy. Victory was somewhat taken for granted, much to Inzaghi’s irritation.”The lads were great tonight,” he told Sky Sport Italia. “I keep praising them because they deserve it for everything that they’re doing – and also because I hear very little praise for them elsewhere.”In fairness to Inzaghi, he had a little bit of a point.Inter reached the Champions League final just under two years ago and were desperately unlucky to lose 1-0 to Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Manchester City. The underdogs completely nullified the threat posed by Erling Haaland and had it not been for Romelu Lukaku’s wasteful finishing, they would have deservedly forced extra-time.As Guardiola quipped during an interview with MARCA not long after the game in Istanbul, “I am a European champion because a player failed three metres from the goalie!”

Getty Images Sport’A side that will create huge problems for Bayern’Poor finishing also let Inter down last season, when they spurned umpteen first-leg opportunities to kill off last-16 opponents Atletico Madrid at San Siro before suffering the agony of losing on penalties at the Metropolitano. It’s, thus, strange that Inter are considered rank outsiders to win this year’s competition.After the quarter-finals were confirmed, most bookmakers placed the Nerazzurri (10/1) sixth in an eight-team race, behind Barcelona (10/3), Paris Saint-Germain (10/3), Real Madrid (4/1), Bayern Munich (5/1) and even Arsenal (7-1), whom Inter beat in the league phase.However, Inter undeniably have a real shot at upsetting the odds by eliminating Bayern and Ciriaco Sforza, who represented both clubs during his playing days, actually believes that the Serie A leaders are the “favourites” going into the quarter-final clash.”This is a side that will create huge problems for Bayern Munich,” the former Switzerland international told Bild. “The Nerazzurri are well-drilled, have kept that structure for two or three years, and found their perfect system in a 3-5-2.”It’s difficult to disagree.

Getty Images Sport’A side that will create huge problems for Bayern’Poor finishing also let Inter down last season, when they spurned umpteen first-leg opportunities to kill off last-16 opponents Atletico Madrid at San Siro before suffering the agony of losing on penalties at the Metropolitano. It’s, thus, strange that Inter are considered rank outsiders to win this year’s competition.After the quarter-finals were confirmed, most bookmakers placed the Nerazzurri (10/1) sixth in an eight-team race, behind Barcelona (10/3), Paris Saint-Germain (10/3), Real Madrid (4/1), Bayern Munich (5/1) and even Arsenal (7-1), whom Inter beat in the league phase.However, Inter undeniably have a real shot at upsetting the odds by eliminating Bayern and Ciriaco Sforza, who represented both clubs during his playing days, actually believes that the Serie A leaders are the “favourites” going into the quarter-final clash.”This is a side that will create huge problems for Bayern Munich,” the former Switzerland international told Bild. “The Nerazzurri are well-drilled, have kept that structure for two or three years, and found their perfect system in a 3-5-2.”It’s difficult to disagree.

Getty Images SportHenry one of Inzaghi’s biggest fansInter used the 3-5-2 formation to great effect under former coach Antonio Conte – who not only ended the club’s 11-year Scudetto drought in 2021, but also led them to the final of the Europa League the year before – but they’ve become an even more formidable side under Inzaghi.”I’ve been following him for a very long time, since his Lazio days,” France and Arsenal legend Thierry Henry recently revealed on Sky Sports. “Inzaghi was at one point known as a guy who if you meet him in a cup game, you’re in trouble, as we saw with Manchester City struggling against his Inter in that Champions League final.“I like the way his 3-5-2 looks. If we take the midfield, have (Nicolo) Barella, (Hakan) Calhanoglu and (Henrikh) Mkhitaryan, you have guys who can be three No.6s.”But when they have the ball, you have Lautaro Martinez who will come deep, and Marcus Thuram who’ll run into the channel when the wing-backs, Federico Dimarco, Denzel Dumfries or Matteo Darmian, do not.”So, I like that they play with two actual centre-forwards because if you instead play a 5-4-1, like a lot of teams like to play out of possession, with one striker and wingers high and wide, when you hit that ball to the striker, he can only hold it.”

‘The masters of defending and transitioning’

An even more eye-catching aspect of what’s become known as ‘Inzaghiball’ is the freedom afforded to the centre-backs to step out of defence and exploit vacated space further up the field, as perhaps best underlined by Alessandro Bastoni crossing for Yann Bisseck to score against Bologna last season.

“It is something we are always working on,” Bastoni told DAZN, “and Inzaghi was very important in that, as I was not so mobile at the start.

“But we all need to be flexible and concentrated. Also, it is not easy to find someone like Mkhitaryan, who can drop into defence, or Lautaro, who connects so well with the midfield.

“But we all move around and try to leave very few reference points for the teams we play against.”

Of course, Inter remain more renowned for their dogged and disciplined defending, which frustrates the life out opponents. As Bisseck admitted in an interview with Kicker on Tuesday, he and his team-mates have no issue playing without the ball for significant stretches of any given game.

Guardiola took a little swipe at Inzaghi’s side for sitting so deep during the dour 0-0 draw between the two sides at the Etihad during the league phase of this season’s Champions League, but he was also quick to tout Inter as possible winners.

“They are,” as the Catalan coach acknowledged in an interview with TNT Sports, “the masters of defending and transitioning.”

Getty Images SportJust two goals conceded in EuropeInter’s defence is by no means impregnable, as we saw in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Parma, which means the Nerazzurri have now shipped 30 goals in just 31 league games this season.However, there has been a very noticeable contrast in the quality of Inter’s defending in Serie A and the Champions League this season, almost as if a side that is rather understandably finding it tough competing on three fronts at this stage of the campaign is keeping a little something extra in reserve for their European assignments.”This was our 46th game of the season and all those weigh on the legs of the players,” Inzaghi’s assistant Massimiliano Farris told DAZN after the game at the Tardini. “We try to safeguard them as best we can and avoid fresh injuries but, at this stage of the season, I don’t think any team can manage to be consistent for the full 90 minutes.”Still, Inter’s powers of concentration appear unaffected in the Champions League, with just two goals conceded in their 10 games so far – which only serves to underline the scale of the task facing Kane & Co. in Tuesday night’s first leg at the Allianz Arena.

• Bayern’s injury issuesKane is unsurprisingly looking forward to the challenge. The chance to play in such mouth-watering match-ups is the primary reason why he felt compelled to leave childhood club Spurs in the summer of 2023 and move to Munich.He’ll also go into the tie in good spirits, having silenced those highlighting his lack of goals in big games by netting three times in Bayern’s 5-0 aggregate win over Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16 to take his overall tournament tally to 10 goals – a record-breaking, single-season haul for an Englishman in the Champions League.

Kane also snapped a run of five Bundesliga appearances without a goal just before the international break by netting in a 3-2 win over St. Pauli last Saturday week before striking again in Friday night’s 3-1 win at Augsburg.

The latter victory came at a cost, though, as Jamal Musiala suffered a thigh muscle tear that means he might not play again this season – a hammer blow for Bayern, who also have Manuel Neuer, Dayot Upamecano, Hiroki Ito, Alphonso Davies and Kingsley Coman unavailable through injury at the moment.

Things actually could be worse, though, as Kane was on the receiving end of a challenge at the WWK Arena that he says “almost destroyed” his ankle.

As it is, the No.9 is expected to be fully fit to face Inter. Bayern would have little chance of breaking down the Champions League’s best defence without him.