Harry Kane has explained why he was substituted at half-time during Bayern Munich’s UEFA Champions League knockout match against Celtic.
The England captain had been an injury doubt going into the play-off second leg at the Allianz Arena, but passed a late assessment to start the clash.
However, after a quiet first half - with his only notable moment being a shot that clipped Kasper Schmeichel’s crossbar just before the interval - Kane was withdrawn by Bayern manager Vincent Kompany at half-time.
Kane has featured in 20 of Bayern’s 22 Bundesliga matches this season, and he tops the league’s scoring charts with 21 goals. Across all competitions, the former Tottenham Hotspur striker has netted 29 times in 31 appearances.
Bayern struggled to find a rhythm without Kane's presence leading the line in the second half, putting numerous balls into the box without anyone to get on the end of them.
Celtic even took the lead to level the aggregate score to 2-2 on 63 minutes with Nicolas Kuhn expertly firing beyond the vastly-experienced Manuel Neuer.
And the tie seemed set for extra-time as the clock reached the last of four additional minutes. But there was to be late, late drama.
Bayern substitute Alphonso Davies reacted sharply to rebound from Schmeichel's initial save to send the German side through to the Champions League last-16 with just seconds remaining.
Detailing why he sat out the second half of the Allianz Arena showdown, Kane said [Cleats Club]: "Great to be through to the next round in the Champions League. It was coming off the back of a tough week; three tough games in a short period, but we found a way to get the job done.
"That's all that matters at this stage, so we are in the hat for next round and looking forward to seeing who we get next.
"And just on my situation, thanks for all the messages, I had a little issue after the Leverkusen game and with a quick turnaround, I wasn't able to be fully fit. It's always annoying when you have to come off but thankfully the boys done a great job in getting the job done.
"Time to use these next couple of days to recover, rest up, hopefully start the healing process as soon as possible, and I'll try get out there as a soon as possible because we have many important games coming up."
Kane, whose club has since confirmed that he will be out for an "indefinite period" due to an aggravated calf injury, also mentioned that the entire Bayern squad was aware that Celtic would be a challenging opponent. While, he praised Schmeichel for his heroic goalkeeping performance.
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He told German outlet BILD: "I hope we can improve, both with and without the ball. With the ball it was a bit too sloppy, too many mistakes, and we were punished for that. And without the ball the intensity and counter-pressing decreased a bit. It's not that we don't want to. It's sometimes a mix of different things, we have to find the right solutions quickly. We now have two important games in the league and we will analyse it carefully.
“Football is not just a beautiful rainbow! We had to find a way to get through it. We know that we were not at our best level and can play better than in the last two games.
“We knew it would be tough, we knew they were coming here and trying to make life difficult for us. But I thought we played much better, we created a few chances, it was one of those days where their goalkeeper had a very good day, we had to be patient.
“Of course we would have preferred to have had a bit more peace of mind and win 2-0 or 3-0. But sometimes you just have to get through it somehow and that's what we did today. When you have three games in six days, against good opponents, two of them away, it's a burden that takes its toll."
