Harry Kane and Michael Olise helped Bayern Munich narrowly defeat Argentine giants Boca Juniors in a thrilling Club World Cup encounter in Miami.
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Kane watched as his Bayern team-mates scored 10 goals without him in their tournament opener against Auckland City in Cincinnati. But in the team's second game he made sure his impact was felt, as Die Roten escaped with a 2-1 win in front of a packed, and largely pro-Boca, crowd at Hard Rock Stadium.
After the Bavarian giants had an early goal ruled out after a VAR review, the Englishman opened the scoring in the 18th minute, pouncing on a ricocheted ball and rolling it into the bottom corner. The first 25 minutes were an attacking onslaught from the German club, but despite their dominance, Bayern couldn’t convert several golden chances.
Kingsley Coman completely mis-hit a ball served perfectly to him on the goal-line by Serge Gnabry. Olise then found himself one-on-one with Agustin Marchesin, but the Boca goalkeeper smothered the ball before the winger could finish. The Frenchman also forced Marchesin into a brilliant save from a free-kick.
After withstanding heavy pressure for most of the first period, Boca – fuelled by their passionate supporters – fought back. Their breakthrough came in the 65th minute, when Rodrigo Andres Battaglia intercepted a pass and launched a perfect through ball to Miguel Merentiel. The striker danced past Josip Stanisic and blasted a shot past Manuel Neuer, igniting Hard Rock Stadium and swinging momentum toward Boca.
But Olise responded. The 23-year-old found space in a crowded box and finally beat Marchesin with a pinpoint finish from Kane's layoff with six minutes left to play, effectively sealing the win for Bayern, who had a late third ruled out for offside. With the result, Bayern advance to the knockout stage, while Boca will now need to beat Auckland to have a chance of advancing – depending on the score of the Benfica-Bayern match on Matchday 3.
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The result ends the strong start by South American teams at the tournament, marking CONMEBOL's first loss.
AFPTHE MVP
Despite being fruitless in the first half, Olise's work rate was impressive. He was central to a lot of the positive attacking moments for Bayern and didn't appear to let his missed shots affect him in the second half. He was relentless and showed ice in his veins for his match-winner.
THE BIG LOSER
It's tough to find fault on a team that punched so highly above its weight but Boca's defence struggled whenever Bayern got into the box. With both Kane and Olise's goals, there was poor positioning and players left open. It's also important to note this is the second-straight game where Miguel Angel Russo's side conceded costly goals that saw the result go against them. Boca had a 2-0 lead against Benfica, only for the Portuguese giants to hit back twice and snatch a draw. The Argentine club can't afford any slip-ups against Auckland, a team that is playing for pride at this stage after being eliminated following a 6-0 loss to Benfica.