When Valentino Rossi was proclaimed MotoGP world champion for the seventh and last time in Malaysia in October 2009, the irreverent Italian wore a funny t-shirt at the celebration that read: “ Old hen fa buon brodo ”. Old hen makes good broth. It was a message to his detractors, as well as a warning to his young rivals, the Pedrosa, Stoner or Lorenzo, showing them that in their old age I could still beat them. He was 30 years old. Somewhat taller are the two best forwards of the moment on the old continent, Robert Lewandowski and Harry Kane, who will measure their strength tomorrow in Montjuïc in the Barça-Bayern (9:00 p.m.). It will be the third clash between them in one of their best periods.
Contrasts
The Pole has flourished with Flick after a weak year, and the Englishman arrives plugged in with a hat-trick after a month of drought
If the Polish striker is experiencing a second youth at 36 years old in his third year at Barça (he has 14 goals in 12 games; 12 in the League and 2 in the Champions League), Bayern’s English striker with a reputation for jinx (strangely , has not yet lifted a single trophy in his 14 seasons as a professional) has established himself as one of the best scorers in Europe with his arrival in the Bundesliga, of which he was the top scorer last season (36 goals) and is now the second best finisher (8 in 7 games, and a total of 12 goals, with the 4 scored in the Champions League).
Face to face
Lewandowski versus Kane
36 years – AGE – 31 years
1.85 m – HEIGHT – 1.88 m
14 – GOALS 24-25 – 12
582 – TOTAL GOALS – 364
96 – CHAMPIONS GOALS – 33
45 million – TRANSFER COST – 95 million
Those are the numbers, indisputable, coldly irrefutable. But the tendencies of each one are diverse. If Lewandowski is showing overwhelming consistency at the start of the season (he has scored in 8 of the 12 games), Kane will appear in Montjuïc with a more irregular trigger (he has scored in 5 of the 9 games), but with revised aim. Until this Saturday, when he scored a hat trick against Stuttgart (4-0), to the joy of his 3-year-old son Louis, to whom he gave the ball, he had not scored in the Bundesliga for a month (September 21, against Werder Bremen).
An unprecedented drought of four games without scoring a goal, their worst streak in two and a half years. Although his impetuous resurgence on the last day should worry the Barça dressing room. Kane always threatens.
Disparate dynamics
Kane has had a permanent love affair with the goal for three years, Lewandowski
The dynamics that both forwards have followed in recent times are also disparate. Despite being denied the glory of titles, in a paranormal case for a footballer of his caliber, Harry Kane has been in a permanent love affair with the goal for three years, regardless of his traveling companions and the coach: he still scored in his last Tottenham 2022- 23 from Antonio Conte and then from Ryan Mason (32 goals), who with his first Bayern 2023-24 from Tuchel (44), as now with Kompany (12), thanks to his sense of smell and his unique finishing qualities.
The Englishman, despite his lanky and not very strong appearance, is a hustler, a generator of opportunities out of nowhere, a constant scorer – he is the greatest scorer in the history of the English team -, a born hunter from the area, who now surrounded The quality of the Gnabry, Müller, Kimmich, Davies or Pavlovic finds the way to goal more easily.
Kane scores his second goal for Stuttgart on Saturday (4-0)
In the case of Lewandowski, another of those who has goals in his blood, there has been a necessary reunion with aim and desire. It has practically been a matter of sensations, of recovering the good vibes led by his former coach at Bayern, Hansi Flick. Thus, Robert has gone through a roller coaster of emotions, from being exciting in his first year (33 goals), to being finished for the culés in the second (26), to having no limits and remembering the forward who marveled at Bayern.
Barça’s Lewandowski 3.0 is once again liked and important because he is a motivated player, more alert, more attentive and more collaborative. He has left behind that fog that obfuscated him, and has assumed a necessary leadership, due to age and seniority, among the girls in a locker room with acne. “For me, inside the area and in front of the goal he is the best,” says Hansi Flick, who has been able to once again extract juice from a lemon that seemed to have already been squeezed.
Flick congratulates Lewandowski on being substituted during the match against Sevilla
Who is better?
Kimmich compares them: “Kane likes to follow the game and sometimes he can give a pass of ten. And Lewandowski is more focused on scoring goals.”
Two pure center forwards who are living a golden stage, in the full maturity of their careers. But who is better? Which of the two is more different? Those who could best give their opinion are the teammates who coincided with them at Bayern. Like Joshua Kimmich, one of Flick’s favorites. “Harry and Lewy can’t be compared so directly. Kane is someone who really likes to follow the game and can sometimes give a pass of ten. And Lewandowski is more focused on scoring goals. “Both help their team a lot with their style,” the midfielder compared them. In Montjuïc you can see if this is the case.
At the moment, in the only two clashes between them, a draw (Poland-England, 1-1) and a victory for Lewandowski, with a double from the Pole in that 2-7 between Bayern and Tottenham (2019).
The Barça-Bayern
2-19 for the Bavarians in the last five matches
Bayern Munich has been Barça’s true bête noire in Europe in the last five years. Since the embarrassing 2-8 in the quarterfinals of the Covid Champions League that was played in a bubble in Lisbon, Barça has conceded a partial 2-19 in the last five duels with the Bavarians. The Blaugrana team has not beaten Bayern since 2015 (3-0 in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals).
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