Declan Rice scored a late equaliser to grab last season’s runners-up Arsenal a 2-2 draw at Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Eberechi Eze opened the scoring for Arsenal on Wednesday after coming on for the injured Bukayo Saka but Alphonso Davies brought Bayern level after a sublime pass from Harry Kane.
Kane had Bayern on track for victory when he created and converted a second-half penalty, but his England teammate Rice equalised with eight minutes remaining to earn Arsenal a point.
Bayern were without in-form winger Michael Olise, Germany captain Joshua Kimmich and midfielder Jamal Musiala. Coach Vincent Kompany had been a doubt due to illness but took his place in the dugout.
Despite the absences, Kane ensured Bayern posed a consistent threat against Arsenal’s miserly defence with another excellent performance ahead of next week’s Ballon d’Or ceremony in London.
Kane’s second-half penalty, his 16th goal in 23 matches against Arsenal, extended his scoring streak to 10 straight Champions League games. Kane is one shy of the record held by Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored in 11 consecutive matches for Real Madrid.
The draw was just the second time Arsenal had dropped points in 12 games in all competitions this season.
Arsenal were hit with an early blow when Saka, their joint-top scorer this season, fell to the ground eight minutes in, grabbed his thigh and immediately signalled to the bench.
Bayern’s two previous Champions League opponents this term were from Norway and the perennial Bundesliga winners seemed to struggle with Arsenal’s physicality as Mikel Arteta’s side pinned them back in the early stages.
With 25 minutes gone, Odegaard floated a simple pass across Bayern’s defence and into the path of the onrushing Eze, who collected and stroked the ball past Manuel Neuer.
Caught out by Eze’s perfectly timed run, the hosts looked even more surprised when VAR overturned the linesman’s offside call and awarded the goal.
The pre-match chatter had been dominated by talk of Kane’s Ballon d’Or prospects and the England captain showed why he is among the favourites when he set up Davies’s equaliser 10 minutes later.
Kane spotted Davies on the move and threaded the ball through the midfield and around Gabriel for the Canadian winger to guide the ball into the bottom corner.
With the hosts now in the ascendancy, Ezri Konsa saw yellow for taking Kane out of a Bayern counter minutes later.
After the break, Neuer and David Raya took turns producing magnificent saves, with the Bayern captain tipping Bruno Guimaraes’s header onto the crossbar and the Spaniard denying Dayot Upamecano.
Both sides traded surges forward but Kane would again prove crucial as Bayern took the lead.
Kane’s shot from the edge of the penalty area connected with Jurrien Timber’s arm, with the referee immediately pointing to the spot before Kane stepped up and buried his kick.
Bayern looked to be in control but the match turned again when late substitute Viktor Gyokeres threaded a clever pass to Rice, who slammed in an equaliser.
Kane told TNT Sports he was a little disappointed with the result.
“But probably when you look at the whole 90 minutes a draw was probably a fair result,” he said.
Source: www.aljazeera.com
