Vini cancels out Kane effort to ensure parity ahead of Bernabeu return

Champions League semi-final: Bayern Munich 2 Real Madrid 2 

VINICIUS Junior ensured Real Madrid will head into next week’s Champions League semi-final second leg at the Bernabeu Stadium on level terms after Harry Kane’s 43rd goal of the season had raised Bayern Munich’s hopes of establishing a first leg advantage.

Kane held his nerve to convert a 57th minute penalty, four minutes after Leroy Sane had brought the Bundesliga side back into the game. But Vinicius Junior, who had fired Carlos Ancelotti’s side ahead midway through the first, matched Kane’s effort from 12 yards after Min-Jae Kim’s ill-judged challenge on Rodrygo to leave the tie finely poised.

Home advantage means Real will head into the second meeting as slight favourites but the way this game played out will only fuel the belief of both sides they can get the job done.

This was the eighth time the two club have faced each in the semi-finals, reinforcing the sense that this was a meeting of European football aristocracy. Bayern had progressed on four of those occasions and while Thomas Tuchel’s side have experienced a poor season domestically, losing out to Bayer Leverkusen on the Bundesliga title race, performances in Europe have been much closer to the standards the club has set itself over the years.

The pre-match tribute to Franz Beckenbauer, who died earlier this year also evoked Bayern’s historic connections with the competition, and there was a confidence to their early play that suggested the occasion would bring out the best in Tuchel’s side. 

That approach should have been rewarded with a goal inside the opening minute when Kane’s first time pass sent Leroy Sane clear in the Real penalty area and the former Manchester City winger should have done