Vincent Kompany has cast uncertainty over Harry Kane’s availability for Bayern Munich’s Champions League playoff clash with Celtic on Tuesday, writes Scott Burns in Munich.
The England captain sustained a facial injury during Bayern’s weekend draw with Bayer Leverkusen. Although Kane completed the match, he missed training on Monday, and Kompany remained tight-lipped about his star striker’s fitness for the crucial second leg at the Allianz Arena.
Kompany said: “It’s [the injury] nothing serious. We haven’t had much time for recovery and to get over the game. Tomorrow we will see how he feels, but it is nothing really bad, that is for sure. There hasn’t been much time to relax and to refresh.” When pressed further about Kane’s status, Kompany responded: “Basically I blurred the lines. I threw up a smoke bomb! What I said was basically a smoke bomb. So I’ll keep blurring the lines and we’ll see tomorrow.”
Bayern hold a 2-1 advantage from the first leg in Glasgow and aim to secure their place in the next round at home. Whether or not Kane features, the Bundesliga giants remain a formidable opponent. Kompany acknowledged Celtic’s threat but expressed confidence in his team’s ability to deliver.
He added: “That is a good question which you will need to ask my colleague, Brendan Rodgers (how he approaches it). Many things can happen in a game.
“From my side, we prepare for everything, if they sit back or press, but it is all the things in between that can decide a game as well. We just want to be mentally ready to do what we have done so often at home in winning games.
“The second half of the tie has still to be played and the parameters haven’t changed, it is a team which is really dangerous going forward. But for us it is a home game and we will make that work to our advantage.
“We won at Celtic Park, which doesn’t happen that often for visiting teams. It was a good experience for our team and against Leverkusen we wanted to win and it is the same tomorrow.
“I don’t have thoughts about ‘what happens if we don’t reach it’. The focus is on can we reach our best performance and can we show our mentality to win this game.
“The best case is that you have both but sometimes for one reason or another you have a game where you just win a game. But it is always about being the best we can be.”
Bayern are heavy favorites, but Kompany dismissed the notion of added pressure, stating: “Are we under more pressure?
“What I would say is that it’s the same for us in every game as it is for Celtic in every game back home. The expectation for Celtic back home is that they have to win every game.
“The emphasis is on them making the difference and it’s the same for us. That’s not a very different situation for us. It’s every week like this.”
With this year’s Champions League final set to take place in Munich, Kompany admitted the added incentive to reach the showpiece event. He said: “I would just say that from the very beginning we have expressed that it was important for our fans to dream.
“But that doesn’t change our mission tomorrow. And our mission tomorrow is to win the game – or do the necessary to qualify.
“Then hopefully I will be standing here again for the next press conference and saying the same again. The dream and the job have to align. And my job is to focus on the game tomorrow.”
