Musiala strike lifts Bayern to victory at Galatasaray

Jamal Musiala assisted one and scored another as Bayern Munich won 3-1 at Galatasaray on Tuesday, extending their stellar Champions League group stage record to 17 straight wins.
Musiala charged up the middle of the park to help create the opener for Kingsley Coman early, before Argentina striker Mauro Icardi won and converted a penalty to level the scores. Musiala, still just 20, laid on a goal for Harry Kane before the England captain returned the favour, allowing the Germany midfielder to get a goal of his own.
“It was an important win” Kane said immediately after the victory. “They made it difficult for us in the first half but in the second we calmed down a little.”
Fellow goalscorer Coman echoed Kane’s comments, saying “it wasn’t easy, they put plenty of pressure on us – but we got better in the second half.” Six-time winners Bayern came into the game hoping to protect a remarkable recent record in the Champions League. The German champions travelled to Istanbul unbeaten in their past 36 matches in the group stages, including 19 away games.
Galatasaray, the only Turkish team to have won a European trophy having lifted the Europa League in 2000, were on a streak of their own, chalking up 17 matches without a loss before Bayern’s visit. Coman got Bayern off to the best possible start, turning in a pinpoint Musiala pass after just eight minutes, his fourth goal in his past three games for the visiting Germans.
Much of the pre-match talk surrounded the availability of Galatasaray’s Argentina striker Icardi. While Tuchel said on Monday “my information is that he’s out for a while”, the former Paris Saint-Germain striker was named up front for the 24-time Turkish champions.
Icardi soon made his presence felt, drawing a clumsy lunge in the box from Joshua Kimmich to win a penalty after 29 minutes. The forward forced a dive from Bayern goalkeeper Sven Ulreich, while he casually chipped a Panenka in to equalise.
Icardi then had a golden chance to give the hosts the lead a minute before the break, but Bayern defender Kim Min-jae arrived, forcing the striker to spray his shot wide. As the second-half wore on, the home side turned up the volume in pursuit of a winner but it would be the visitors who struck next, Kane back-heeling in another Musiala assist.
Kane now has 11 goals in 12 games in all competitions for Bayern since making the move from Tottenham in the summer. Musiala then got on the scoresheet himself, slamming a Kane assist past goalkeeper Fernando Muslera to put the match beyond doubt. Bayern have now not lost a match in the group stages since September 2017.
Inter squeeze past Salzburg to move top of Group D
Inter Milan took provisional lead of Champions League Group D after winning a tough contest with Salzburg 2-1 at a packed San Siro.
Goals in each half from Alexis Sanchez and Hakan Calhanoglu were enough for Inter to move up to seven points, three ahead of Real Sociedad who are at bottom side Benfica late last night.
Simone Inzaghi’s side were good value for their win but were made to sweat for the three points as Salzburg caused the hosts problems and were briefly level when Oscar Gloukh stroked home a classy finish in the 57th minute. A four-point gap between Inter and third-placed Salzburg makes qualification for the knockout stages more likely regardless of how Sociedad do in Portugal.
Sanchez’s finish will also cheer Inzaghi as it showed he can drop one of star strike pairing Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram without losing goal threat. The Chile striker was a surprise pick in place of Thuram from Inzaghi, who also dropped star left-back Federico Dimarco and Nicolo Barella to the bench with a big Serie A clash with Roma coming up at the weekend. Sanchez, 34, is now the highest scoring Chilean in Champions League history with 16 goals.