Kane brace takes Bayern past Union, Frankfurt rout Bochum

Harry Kane scored twice and set up another as Bayern Munich moved three points clear at the top of the Bundesliga with a 3-0 home win over Union Berlin on Saturday.

The England captain put Bayern ahead from the spot after 15 minutes after Union’s Benedict Hollerbach brought down Michael Olise on the edge of the box.

Kane turned provider just before halftime, tapping the ball into Kingsley Coman’s path, the France forward blasting in over Union goalkeeper Frederik Ronnow.

Kane added another after 51 minutes, eagerly getting to a loose ball inches ahead of teammate Jamal Musiala to complete his brace.

Kane’s double took him past his rival in this season’s goalscoring battle, Omar Marmoush, who scored one and assisted two more in Eintracht Frankfurt’s 7-2 demolition of hapless Bochum.

Hugo Ekitike scored a brace while Marmoush, Ansgar Knauff, Nathaniel Brown, Mahmoud Dahoud and Can Uzun all got on the scoresheet in the rout.

Marmoush now has 10 goals to Kane’s 11 this season, but the Egyptian’s six assists — the best in the league — are one more than the England captain’s five.

Frankfurt leapfrogged defending champions Bayer Leverkusen into third place, six points behind leaders Bayern.

Bochum scored goals in each half through Dani de Wit and Philipp Hofmann but were thoroughly outclassed.

Bochum now have just one point from nine games to sit stranded at the bottom of the table after both promoted sides St Pauli and Holstein Kiel won on Saturday.

Kiel beat Heidenheim 1-0 at home thanks to a goal from Patrick Erras, for their first ever win in the top division, to go three points clear of Bochum.

Goals from Oladapo Afolayan and Andreas Albers took St Pauli to a 2-0 win at Hoffenheim, drawing them level with their opponents on eight points just above the direct relegation zone.

Elsewhere, Wolfsburg drew 1-1 at home with Augsburg.

Earlier, Bayer Leverkusen were made to pay for wasting several chances in a scoreless home draw with Stuttgart on Friday, dropping more points in their Bundesliga title defence.

Leverkusen dominated the duel between last season’s top two sides in the league but failed to break through, with Victor Boniface, Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong all spurning opportunities.

The draw means Leverkusen, who dropped just 12 points last season in an unbeaten title charge, have already dropped 11 this campaign and could finish the weekend seven points behind the league leaders.

Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso was surprisingly upbeat, telling DAZN: “I’m very satisfied with the performance and the attitude from the lads - we were only missing the goals.”

Leverkusen will need to regroup before Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Alonso’s former club Liverpool, who are one of only two sides to have claimed a perfect nine points in the competition this season.

“We’re really disappointed, that was our best performance of the season,” Leverkusen’s Granit Xhaka told DAZN.

“We created plenty of chances -- but we needed to take advantage of them. We were missing the last pass unfortunately and that’s why we’re disappointed.”

Leverkusen and Germany midfielder Robert Andrich said his side “deserved to win this game more than any other one we’ve played this year -- but we couldn’t get across the line up front.”

Stuttgart were hit with an early blow when Jamie Leweling was forced off with what looked like a hamstring injury.

Leverkusen were utterly dominant in the first half but could not break through Stuttgart’s defence.

Frimpong had a 32nd-minute effort ruled out for offside and Alexander Nuebel got a hand to keep out a close range Boniface effort moments before halftime.

Stuttgart’s first foray close to goal did not come until the 60th minute but it was almost telling, Germany striker Deniz Undav’s shot gliding just shy of the right post.

Agence France-Presse