Harry Kane: 'They bought him to win Champions League' – Raphael ...

TNT Sports football expert Raphael Honigstein believes that England captain Harry Kane will be vital for Bayern Munich against Real Madrid, saying that Bayern “bought him to win the Champions League".

One of the key battles has been pegged as Kane facing off against Madrid central defender Antonio Rudiger, who expertly marshalled Manchester City forward Erling Haaland in the previous leg as the La Liga giants knocked the holders out.

It has led to some debate about whether Bayern will use Kane to try and push the defence back by playing high, or instead drop deeper as he likes to do to try and draw the centre-backs out.

“Kane does both of these things really well,” Honigstein said.

“He pushes defences back by playing on the shoulder and can drop deep to help create space for others. And I think it's going to be a variation depending on how deep Real Madrid defend.

“Kane might be forced to go into midfield a few times anyway. At the same time, if Bayern don't have that much possession Kane is an important outlet who then brings on fast players beyond him.

“So I think is going to be a little bit dependent on what line Real Madrid take, how deep they are. Kane can luckily do all of these things extremely well.”

Honigstein added that he thinks these are the moments that Bayern had in mind when they made the effort to sign Kane from Tottenham Hotspur last summer.

“They bought him to win the Champions League. I mean, it's great for him to score lots of goals in the Bundesliga, but it's just the day job.

“They want him to do something special in the Champions League, and now more than ever, they need the big players - and he's definitely one of them - to turn up.

“It's vital that he has a great game, it doesn't necessarily have to mean scoring goals, but if you can hold the ball up well and create space for others then that's a hugely important thing for this Bayern team.”

Touching upon Kane’s creativity, it’s worth noting that whilst he does have 35 goals across the Bundesliga, he also has eight assists this season.

Of all players across Europe’s top five leagues, only Chelsea's Cole Palmer (20 goals and nine assists) has more assists.

Honigstein said that he thinks that side of Kane’s game has really endeared him to his new Bayern team-mates.

“I think all these players [Thomas Muller, Kingsley Coman, Leroy Sane and Serge Gnabry], obviously, they know how good he is.

“But then when you see him perform so well, that he can help others and be very unselfish in the way he plays, I think it's been it's been really appreciated by the whole dressing room with his attitude and the way he makes things happen for others, he's two players in one really, which is an amazing talent to have.

“He's played some unbelievable passes. I think we're kind of used to it, and it's okay, Harry Kane plays a wonderful pass, but you often just need to remind yourself that this is a centre-forward.

"Having this range of passing, and when he’s on form and he plays these passes and switches play beautifully, you can see just how much of an impact he has on this Bayern team.”

In terms of the game itself, Honigstein said that he was interested to see how the two teams approach it, with both sides showing caution at times during their respective quarter-finals.

“This will be a very interesting game, because we saw two different games from Real against Manchester City," he said.

"First match, it’s very open with lots of goals and the second leg was very cagey where Madrid were quite defensive and were happy to soak up the pressure.

“It's hard to know which way it's going to go. If I was Ancelotti, I'd say Bayern struggle to break down teams who defend deep so why create space for them by going on the offensive in the first leg away from home?

“It could well be that this game is going to be a little bit like the first half against Arsenal in the second leg, a little bit cagey, a little edgy, not that many chances.

"That would be my guess, but it only then needs maybe a goal here there to open things up as it did also against Arsenal when Bayern scored.”