HARRY KANE’S Champions League dream is alive and kicking – just – as Bayern Munich scraped past brave Celtic.
Alphonso Davies bundled home from a yard out at the death to keep their hopes of lifting the famous trophy for a seventh time in their own city intact.
However, it was heartbreak for Brendan Rodgers and his side after they missed a host of glorious chances.
England’s top goalscorer barely had a touch before he was taken off at the break amid fears the facial injury that kept him out of training on Monday had flared up again.
He still managed to hit the woodwork – but he and his team-mates were the fortunate ones not to be trailing at the break as they were almost caught cold.
Celtic made a flying start in trying to secure a first knockout tie in this competition for 36 years and should have been at least two up inside the opening 20 minutes.
Captain Callum McGregor sliced over after being sent clean through early on.
The Bhoys carved the hosts wide open again when Jota flew past Josip Stanisic and pulled it from the left to the unmarked Nicolas Kuhn.
The ex-Bayern ace met it left footed at the far post and beat Manuel Neuer, but Raphael Guerreiro was able to clear on the line.
Vincent Kompany’s side were struggling and alarm bells started to ring as Celtic came close once more.
CELTIC TAKE THE LEAD IN MUNICH! 😱
— Prime Video Sport UK (@primevideosport) February 18, 2025
Nicolas-Gerrit Kühn slots it past Neuer to give the away side the lead and levels the tie 👏#UCLonPrime pic.twitter.com/kfwYW3afYZ
This time Kuhn flashed a ball along the front of goal but team-mate Daizen Maeda was just unable to reach.
Bayern looked completely rattled, but once more the visitors failed to take advantage when Maeda shot wide with a first-time effort to leave Brendan Rodgers tearing his hair out.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Rod Stewart steals show as he does duet with Carragher and dances at Celtic v Bayern ” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6368746452112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]Kane, chasing his 30th goal of the season, almost punished Celtic as he forced his ex-Leicester City team-mate Kasper Schmeichel into action.
Bayern were now starting to get a grip of the game with Joshua Kimmich shooting wide from 20 yards.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D107081%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]And Kane, who only had ten touches during the opening period, almost broke the deadlock with the last kick of the half as he rattled the crossbar from 12 yards.
That would be the hotshot’s final act as he was replaced by Kingsley Coman.
Schmeichel produced a vital save to deny Leon Goretzka after the restart and it proved to be crucial as Celtic soon stunned the Allianz Arena.
Maeda’s through-ball should have been bread and butter for Kim Min-jae, but his poor defending was pounced on by Kuhn as the winger coolly drilled a low shot past Neuer.
Celtic were level on aggregate but they missed another huge opportunity to lead the tie for the first time when Japanese ace Maeda’s diving header was straight at the keeper.
Goretzka and Leroy Sane were both off target as Bayern desperately tried to fight back.
Schmeichel then produced an acrobatic flying save to push away Kimmich’s long-ranger.
Though there was a cruel twist in the fourth minute of added time when Schmeichel brilliantly saved from Goretzka’s header, Canadian Davies reacted quickest to smash home and win 3-2 on aggregate.
[opta live=”true” navigation=”concertina” default_nav=”1″ show_match_header=”true” show_score=”true” show_halftime_score=”true” show_crests=”true” show_team_formation=”true” show_competition_name=”true” graph_style=”full” show_date=”true” date_format=”ddd D MMM” narrow_date_format=”DD/MM/YY” show_social=”false” show_var=”true” rounding=”1″ competition_naming=”full” team_naming=”full” show_live=”true” show_logo=”false” show_title=”true” breakpoints=”400, 700″ sport=”football” opta_widget=”matchstats” opta_template=”team_graphs” opta_competition=”5″ opta_season=”2024″ opta_match_id=”2506885″ /]ALPHONSO DAVIES PUTS BAYERN AHEAD IN THE FINAL MINUTES 🤯
— Prime Video Sport UK (@primevideosport) February 18, 2025
Kasper Schmeichel's excellent save isn't enough to stop the Canadian latching onto the rebound to take the lead in the tie 🙌#UCLonPrime pic.twitter.com/GLe69Sg9Tb