As of: February 14, 2024, 5:16 p.m
By: Hanna Raif, Philipp Kessler
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Bayern star Harry Kane is currently having a difficult time, Lazio striker Ciro Immobile scored at the weekend.
Who will have their club cheering on Wednesday?
Rome – Things sound very simple from the mouth of Ciro Immobile.
The ex-Dortmunder and now long-time Lazio striker formulates his battle plan against FC Bayern as follows: “Play with pure joy and ease.” This applies to his team, which achieved its first success after three games without a win just in time for the dress rehearsal against Cagliari Calcio has (3:1).
But that also applies to the 33-year-old himself - who is going into this round of 16 duel really elated.
The meeting with Bayern's Harry Kane motivates him even more.
“He is one of the best strikers,” emphasizes Immobile.
“Comparing yourself with players like that is important to stay motivated.”
Immobile is in an elite circle
Unlike Harry Kane, his counterpart in the red jersey, Immobile had every reason to celebrate at the weekend.
On the one hand, because he made things clear with his goal to make it 2-0.
But rather because with this goal, his sixth in the current Serie A, he broke the barrier of 200 goals in the Italian league.
Immobile, who has been with Lazio since 2016, joined the big names Roberto Baggio, Antonio di Natale and Francesco Totti and is now the eighth best goalscorer in Italy's top flight.
Someone who will be in the annals – exactly where Kane wants to go in the Bundesliga.
Munich's Harry Kane (M) fights for the ball against Mönchengladbach's Rocco Reitz (l) and Manu Kone. © Angelika Warmuth/dpa
The year 2024 is not yet Harry Kane's
The 30-year-old currently has 24 goals – an outstanding rate, without question.
But you're not exaggerating when you say that the Englishman is going through a dip in form in the 2024 football year.
The impression was not only evident at the previous low point in the top game (0:3) at Bayer Leverkusen, where Kane had exactly 18 ball contacts.
He wasn't nearly as well integrated in the previous games as he was in large parts of the first half of the season.
The statisticians counted 22 touches on the ball in Augsburg, where they ultimately won 3-2.
Only the regular goals concealed a trend that has been emerging for weeks - and has to do with Kane personally, but also with FC Bayern's entire game.
Lazio's Ciro Immobile celebrates after scoring a goal.
© Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via ZUMA Press/dpa
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Kane is currently struggling and being self-critical
Kane himself described the desolate performance of the Munich front row against league leaders Leverkusen as a “really disappointing day with the ball”.
And sports director Christoph Freund was also not happy with the offensive game: “It was really astonishing that we created almost no chances to score.
This is very untypical for FC Bayern.
I hope that was an exception.”
In any case, in the past few weeks it has rarely been the case where Kane was standing.
And Kane rarely stood where he was enthralled in his first months in Munich: in midfield, when he picked up those balls that he himself used one or two runs later.
Kane's congenial partner Leroy Sané is also in poor form
The interaction with Leroy Sané in particular was a story in which there only seemed to be winners.
The 100 million man who takes off and pulverizes Robert Lewandowski's 41-goal record.
And the German international, who is finally bursting with self-confidence on the way to the home EURO.
There are also a few numbers about this: Sané had eight goals and nine assists in the first half of the season, and in the current second half of the season he has one goal assist - and a lot of frustration.
On Saturday it was perhaps a good thing that Tuchel had to explain his defense rather than his offense.
However, “I don’t know why we couldn’t integrate him properly” won’t be enough as a solution to the obvious Kane problem in the long run.
Creativity will also be needed to overcome Lazio's defense - as a look at the statistics shows: the most common result for the Romans this season was a 1-0.
It's up to Kane (and Co.) to break this trend.
Maybe Immobile's recipe will help.
Things usually work better with joy and ease.
And it undoubtedly must.
Hanna Raif, Philipp Kessler