Bayern Munich Grinds Out Win Against Wolfsburg Despite Kane's Miss
Harry Kane slipped, Bayern stuttered, but the champions still found just enough to drag themselves off the canvas.
Three days after the emotional crash of a Champions League semi-final exit to Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich ground out a 1-0 win at struggling Wolfsburg, a result that soothed the mood if not the questions about their form.
Kane’s rare miss, Bayern’s heavy legs
The scars from midweek were obvious from the first whistle. Bayern, nursing a 6-5 aggregate defeat to PSG after a 1-1 draw in Munich, arrived with six changes to the XI and a visible hangover. The passing was slower, the movement more predictable. The Bundesliga champions had Harry Kane on the pitch, the league’s most ruthless finisher, but the usual cutting edge simply wasn’t there.
Their big chance came on 36 minutes. Penalty to Bayern. Kane, flawless from the spot in the Bundesliga with 24 straight conversions, placed the ball as he always does. Then came the slip. A slight loss of footing, a skewed strike, the ball flying off target. A first missed league penalty in Germany for a player who has made a career out of these moments.
It summed up Bayern’s first half: dominant in territory, blunt where it mattered.
Olise delivers the moment of quality
The visitors needed more than 45 minutes to shake the fog from their heads. Wolfsburg, fighting at the wrong end of the table, held their shape and waited, sensing Bayern were there to be rattled.
The pressure finally told in the 56th minute. Michael Olise, one of the few Bayern players playing with real freedom, drifted into space and decided he’d had enough of the stalemate. One touch to set himself, then a superb curling strike arcing into the top corner. A finish of pure technique, and a goal that sliced through the tension as much as it did the Wolfsburg defence.
Bayern had their lead. They still did not have control.
Svanberg hits the post, Bayern cling on
Wolfsburg refused to fold. The game never quite turned into a siege, but the champions never looked entirely secure either. Passes went astray, attacks broke down, and the sense lingered that one moment could undo them.
It almost did in the 89th minute. Mattias Svanberg found himself clean through, only goalkeeper Jonas Urbig to beat. He struck low, past the keeper, but not past the woodwork. The ball cannoned off the post and away, a lifeline for a Bayern side who had started to look like they were running on fumes.
The final whistle brought relief more than celebration. It was three points, not a statement.
Double still in sight, race still alive
For all the doubts about their fluency, Bayern’s season can still end with a domestic double. They will face Stuttgart in the German Cup final on 23 May, a meeting that now carries extra weight after the Champions League dream slipped away.
The league picture remains tight below them. Borussia Dortmund in second and RB Leipzig in third have already locked in Champions League qualification. Stuttgart sit fourth, level on 61 points with Hoffenheim in fifth, with only the top four guaranteed a place at Europe’s top table next season.
Bayern’s win in Wolfsburg did not sparkle. It did not erase Paris. But on a weekend when legs were heavy and minds still drifted back to Wednesday night, it kept the machine moving towards silverware.
Martínez sharp as Inter punish Lazio
In Italy, Lautaro Martínez used his return to the starting lineup to send a clear message ahead of another final.
Inter, already crowned Serie A champions, swept aside Lazio 3-0 in Rome, a result that landed a psychological punch just days before the two sides meet again in the Coppa Italia final at the Stadio Olimpico.
The tone was set almost immediately. In the sixth minute, a long throw was flicked on by Marcus Thuram and dropped invitingly into the area. Martínez, the league’s leading scorer back from injury, pounced. One clean volley, one ruthless finish, and his 17th league goal of the season.
Inter played with the ease of a side with the title already secured. Lazio, eighth and outside the European places via the league, treated it as a dress rehearsal. Only one side looked ready for Wednesday.
Six minutes before half-time, the champions sliced Lazio open again. Martínez combined neatly with Andy Diouf down the left, then rolled the ball to Petar Sucic on the edge of the box. Sucic didn’t hesitate, curling a first-time effort into the top corner. Precision, power, and a 2-0 lead that felt decisive.
Lazio’s hopes faded completely just before the hour. Alessio Romagnoli launched into a dangerous challenge on Ange-Yoan Bonny and saw red, leaving the hosts to chase the game with 10 men.
Inter turned the screw. In the 75th minute, a flowing move through midfield ended at the feet of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who crashed his finish into the roof of the net to cap a dominant performance.
If this was a preview, Lazio have plenty to solve before the trophy is on the line.
Sixteen-year-old Mesloub transforms Lens and buries Nantes
In France, a teenager stepped off the bench and changed the shape of a season in seconds.
Lens, chasing Champions League football and clinging to faint title hopes, needed a breakthrough against Nantes. They found it through Mezian Mesloub, a 16-year-old making his Ligue 1 debut.
He was on the pitch for moments. In the 79th minute, a loose ball dropped to him in the box. First touch to steady, second touch to fire. The shot flew in, Lens led 1-0, and Mesloub’s debut instantly became a landmark.
That goal did more than win a game. It guaranteed Lens a top-three finish and a place in next season’s Champions League, moving them nine points clear of fourth-placed Lille with both sides having two matches left.
For Nantes, it was brutal. The defeat confirmed their relegation to the second tier, a fall sealed by the sharpness of a player barely old enough to drive.
The result also keeps the Ligue 1 title race mathematically alive. Lens, in second, are the only team who can still catch PSG. The odds remain stacked against them. PSG, Champions League finalists and leaders in France, can move six points clear with a vastly superior goal difference if they beat Brest on Sunday, effectively placing one hand on the trophy with two games to play.
Yet the formal coronation must wait. PSG will travel to Lens on Wednesday night, to a stadium now guaranteed Champions League football and energised by a 16-year-old who has already altered the club’s future.
