England captain Harry Kane can fire Bayern Munich to victory at Lazio (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
Harry Kane was bought by Bayern Munich with the express desire of rekindling their love affair with the Champions League but it is going to take more than a Valentine’s Day date in the Eternal City to get their special relationship back on track.
The Bundesliga champions should return from Rome with a healthy first-leg lead in the last-16 tie as opponents Lazio are mediocre Serie A fare seeking to reach the quarter-finals of the tournament for the first time in 24 years.
Bayern are desperate to become European champions for a seventh time, most recently lifting the trophy in 2020 when they beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 in Lisbon, a match played behind closed doors because of the Covid pandemic.
Manager Thomas Tuchel has enjoyed success in the competition, reaching that final with PSG and winning the tournament with Chelsea the following season, but all is not well at the Allianz Arena.
Bayern trail Bayern Leverkusen by five points in the race for their domestic crown after being outclassed in a 3-0 defeat at their title rivals on Saturday and reports in German newspaper Bild suggest Jose Mourinho, without a job after parting company with Roma, is being lined up to take charge.
Facing Lazio could be just the tonic for both Tuchel and Bayern, however, as the Italians have won just one of their last four matches and are eighth in the table after finishing second last year.
Thomas Tuchel is under pressure at Bayern Munich (Picture: Getty Images)
Before defeat at the weekend, Bayern had won seven of their previous eight games in all competitions, with Kane continuing to play his part since joining from Tottenham with 28 goals for the club known as FC Hollywood.
And although Tuchel will be without influential Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry, his side should still triumph at 7/10 with Betfair while Kane is 3/1 with the same firm, Paddy Power and bet365 to open the scoring and evens with the latter to hit the net at any time.
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Ciro Immobile has scored in his last two appearances for Lazio after going eight games without a goal and is 13/5 with Unibet and BetUK to net his 11th of the season as consolation.
Meanwhile, a 2-1 win for the visitors is 15/1 with bet365 and William Hill.
• Ipswich, Sunderland, Coventry and Preston form tonight’s Championship yankee.
• England are 3/1 with SpreadEx to win the third Test with India at Rajkot and take a 2-1 series lead, on a pitch which may favour their seamers. Zak Crawley scored 76 and 73 in the second Test defeat and is 5/6 with bet365 to score over 60.5 match runs this time around. He’s also 17/2 with the same firm to be top match batter and 5/1 with BetGoodwin to be the tourists’ leading runscorer. Yashasvi Jaiswal is 7/2 with iBet to be India’s top batter.
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