Kane happy to mix things up amid new Jackson partnership

Harry Kane believes it will be important for Bayern Munich to find ways of fielding him and Nicolas Jackson together, after both strikers were on target in a 5-1 rout of Pafos.

Kane struck twice as Bayern cruised into a 4-0 lead in the first half of Wednesday's game in Cyprus, also hitting the inside of the post with an overhead kick early on.

The England captain has now scored more goals in 27 Champions League outings for Bayern (24) than he managed in 32 games for former club Tottenham in the competition (22). 

He is the first player from Europe's top five leagues to reach 20 goal involvements in all competitions this season (17 goals, three assists), with no other player netting more than 13 times (Kylian Mbappe).

Kane has now scored at least two goals in seven of nine outings this season, netting two hat-tricks. But his latest brace came after he was deployed in a slightly deeper role, behind Chelsea loanee Jackson. 

"Nicolas Jackson started today. At times, I dropped back a bit, more like a 10, and he came in and received the balls," Kane said, as quoted by Bayern's website.

"I think it's important to keep surprising defenders and not do the same thing all match. 

"Nico was fantastic today – he had a goal, an assist and almost another goal at the end. I'm very pleased for him. We'll need him all season, hopefully he stays fit and fresh."

By also laying on a goal for Raphael Guerreiro, Jackson became only the fourth player to both score and assist on his first Champions League start for Bayern, after Carsten Jancker (1997 versus Goteborg), Xherdan Shaqiri (2012 against BATE Borisov) and Kane (2023 versus Manchester United).

"It was a good away win," Kane continued. "Last year we struggled away from home in the league phase, so this time we wanted to build on the momentum we've had since the start of the season.

"It was a really good win. And for me, I'm going into games with the confidence that I'll get chances. I managed to take another two of them today."

Bayern toiled to a 12th-placed finish in the inaugural league phase last season and had to edge out Celtic in a knockout-round play-off tie, and vice-captain Joshua Kimmich is determined for them to avoid that fate this time around.

Kimmich said: "Our aim is clear; we want to avoid the play-offs, unlike last season. Of course, we've seen that you can still win the title via the play-offs, as PSG did."