Kane wins another trophy as Bayern seals Supercup
Harry Kane opened the scoring and Luis Diaz opened his account as Bayern Munich beat Stuttgart 2-1 to claim the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup.
Vincent Kompany's side prevailed at MHPArena to land the first silverware of the German season, with its Bundesliga title defence starting next weekend.
Bayern sounded an early warning when Serge Gnabry swept a first-time shot narrowly wide, before it took the lead in the 18th minute.
Luca Jaquez failed to deal with Michael Olise's attempted throughball, and Kane reacted quickest to slide a half-volley beyond the dive of Stuttgart goalkeeper Fabian Bredlow.
Manuel Neuer came to Bayern's rescue in both halves, denying Nick Woltemade from point-blank range, then doing brilliantly to tip over Jamie Leweling's deflected long-range effort.
His interventions proved crucial when Diaz doubled Bayern's lead 13 minutes from time, rounding off a swift counter-attack by arriving late to head home Gnabry's cross.
The Colombian then marked his first goal for the club by replicating the gaming celebration made iconic by his former Liverpool team-mate Diogo Jota.
Leweling grabbed a stoppage-time consolation when he nodded in from Chema Andres's centre, but Bayern held out for the trophy.
Bayern had just three pre-season games because of its FIFA Club World Cup exploits, but Kompany believes it is now time to focus on what is ahead.
“The title is extra important because it’s the Franz Beckenbauer Super Cup – that’ll always be special for Bayern,” he said.
“It’s never easy in Stuttgart, but we came here and delivered. Obviously, we would’ve liked a longer pre-season, but moaning doesn’t help. We’ve spoken about that.
“We had the chance to start out with a title. That was our goal and we’ve achieved it. Today was a good first step.”
Captain Neuer added: “It’s a title. That’s obviously very important for us.
“You didn’t sense any tiredness with us. We could’ve been cleverer at the end, but we’re happy. I want to help the team and enjoy success. We did that today.
“Stuttgart are a tough team to play against. They did well, but we deserved to win. We were always the better team in our pre-season games. We want to take that into the league.”
Bayern continued its supremacy over Stuttgart, now winning 15 of the past 16 matches between the two clubs.
Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeness urged his side to be more mature in such matches going forward.
“It’s a needless defeat from my point of view,” he said.
“When I see the chances, I might say it’s maybe fair, but on the whole it’s very annoying and needless. We need to be more mature.
“Still, it was a game where Bayern had to go to their limit, even though it counted for nothing in the end.”
Bayern missed out on last year's showpiece, but maintained its dominance in the traditional season opener, with a record-extending 11th triumph in its record 18th appearance.
The defending Bundesliga champion also continued its head-to-head dominance over Stuttgart, having now beaten its southern rival in 15 of the past 16 meetings between the sides at MHPArena.
