King Kane cleans up in clinical Klassiker debut
Harry Kane proved he is arguably the world's best striker right now, netting a stunning hat-trick in his first Der Klassiker to help Bayern Munich to a thumping 4-0 win at Borussia Dortmund.
The England captain was on the scoresheet inside the first 10 minutes as the visitors burst out of the blocks at Signal Iduna Park, going ahead through a Dayot Upamecano header after just four minutes from a corner before Kane finished a blistering counter-attack to make it 2-0 after nine.
A shell-shocked Dortmund was barely able to cope as Bayern continued the onslaught for the rest of the period, and the second half started in similar vein as Thomas Tuchel's side continued to pummel the Dortmund goal, forcing Gregor Kobel into a string of fine saves to keep the scoreline respectable.
Dortmund began to find its feet as the second period progressed, however, but a brilliant save at the other end from Manuel Neuer denied Marco Reus and his side from finding a potential path back from the abyss.
That save would prove all the more crucial when Kane's second eventually came on 72 minutes to make it 3-0, and while VAR initially denied him a hat-trick, the former Tottenham Hotspur man sealed it not long after, slotting past Kobel for a record 15th goal of an astonishing season – which is only 10 matches old – and now including three hat-tricks.
The 30-year-old has now been involved in 20 league goals in that same period. No player in Bundesliga history has managed as many at this point of the competition.
As a team, Bayern has now scored eight goals in the opening 15 minutes of Bundesliga matches, twice as many as any other side.
The win, however, was not enough to put Bayern on top of the table, where Bayer Leverkusen remains two points clear after it beat Hoffenheim in a 3-2 thriller earlier in the day.
For Dortmund, defeat is damaging. Unbeaten prior to the fixture, Edin Terzic now finds his team seven points off top spot, and with plenty of soul-searching to be done if it is to get back on track for another tilt at a title it let slip to Bayern on the last day of last season.
