Bayern Munich edges Wolfsburg as Harry Kane misses penalty
Harry Kane missed from the spot, Bayern Munich misfired again in open play, yet the Bundesliga champions still dragged themselves to a narrow 1-0 win at struggling Wolfsburg – a result that mattered far more for their mood than the table.
Days after the chaos and heartbreak of their 6-5 aggregate defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League semi-final, this was about control, not spectacle. Bayern had been denied a first Champions League final in six years by that 1-1 draw in Munich on Wednesday; the scars were still fresh. The performance showed it.
Thomas Tuchel rang the changes, six in total, but the reshuffle dulled Bayern’s edge. Kane, still the league’s top scorer, led the line, yet the visitors looked short of their usual bite. Passes went astray, runs were mistimed, and the tempo sagged. The frustration on the pitch mirrored the mood off it.
Then came the moment that stunned the away end. In the 36th minute, Kane stepped up to the penalty spot, as automatic and assured as ever after 24 successful Bundesliga penalties. He slipped. The ball flew off target. For the first time in Germany’s top flight, Kane had missed from 12 yards.
It summed up Bayern’s evening: a heavyweight side swinging but not quite landing.
The champions needed more than a half to remember who they were. Once they did, the quality finally surfaced. Eleven minutes into the second period, Michael Olise cut inside and bent a superb shot into the top corner, the kind of finish that doesn’t need context or explanation. One touch to set, one to curl, and the deadlock was gone in the 56th minute.
That should have settled Bayern. It didn’t entirely. Wolfsburg, fighting to salvage something from a flat season, hung on and waited for their moment. It almost arrived at the death. In the 89th minute, Mattias Svanberg burst through with only Jonas Urbig to beat and drilled his effort against the post. The stadium gasped; Bayern exhaled.
The champions held on, grinding out a win that keeps their domestic ambitions alive. The league title is already secure, but the double remains on the table. On 23 May they face Stuttgart in the German Cup final, a chance to close a turbulent season with a statement.
The stakes around them are clear. Borussia Dortmund in second and RB Leipzig in third have already locked in their Champions League places. Stuttgart sit fourth, level on 61 points with Hoffenheim in fifth, with only the top four guaranteed a ticket to next season’s competition.
Bayern’s season now narrows to one target: turn the frustration of Europe into a domestic double, or let this year be remembered for the one that got away.
Martínez sharp as Inter send warning to Lazio
In Italy, Lautaro Martínez chose his moment to reassert himself.
Back in Inter’s starting XI after an injury layoff, the Serie A top scorer drove the champions to a commanding 3-0 victory at Lazio – and did it just days before the two sides meet again in the Coppa Italia final.
The league title is already sewn up for Inter. Lazio, eighth and outside the European places, needed a lift. Instead, they were handed a reminder of the gulf between the sides.
Inter struck early. In the sixth minute, a long throw caused chaos, Marcus Thuram flicked it on, and Martínez, alive to the second ball, lashed a volley past the goalkeeper for his 17th league goal of the campaign. One chance, one ruthless finish.
The pattern was set. Inter moved the ball with assurance, Lazio chased shadows. Six minutes before half-time, Martínez drifted left and linked with Andy Diouf, then slid the ball across for Petar Sucic on the edge of the box. Sucic opened his body and curled a first-time shot into the top corner, a clean, elegant strike that left Lazio staring at a two-goal deficit and their confidence draining away.
Any hopes of a second-half fightback collapsed just before the hour. Alessio Romagnoli flew into a dangerous challenge on Ange-Yoan Bonny and saw red, leaving Lazio to play out the final half-hour with 10 men.
Inter didn’t ease off. In the 75th minute, a flowing move through midfield sliced Lazio open again, ending with Henrikh Mkhitaryan arriving to smash the ball into the roof of the net. Three goals, three different scorers, and a clear message sent ahead of Wednesday’s Coppa Italia final at the Stadio Olimpico.
For Lazio, the defeat stings. For Inter, it felt like a rehearsal with teeth.
Sixteen-year-old Mesloub transforms Lens – and sinks Nantes
On Friday night in France, a teenager stepped onto the pitch and changed the shape of a season with two touches.
Mezian Mesloub, just 16, came off the bench for Lens and scored seconds into his Ligue 1 debut to seal a 1-0 win over Nantes – a result that booked Lens’s place in next season’s Champions League and condemned Nantes to relegation.
The game had been tense, tight, and goalless. Then, in the 79th minute, Mesloub arrived. A loose ball broke in the box. With his first touch, he brought it under control. With his second, he fired it home. No hesitation, no sign of nerves, just a clean finish that shattered Nantes’ resistance and ignited Lens’s celebrations.
That single goal did heavy lifting. Lens are now guaranteed a top-three finish, sitting nine points clear of fourth-placed Lille with both teams having two matches left. The win also keeps the Ligue 1 title race alive, at least on paper. Second-placed Lens remain the only team who can still catch Paris Saint-Germain.
The odds remain stacked in PSG’s favour. The Champions League finalists host Brest on Sunday and can move six points clear with a vastly superior goal difference and two games remaining, which would all but lock up the title. Yet they cannot formally clinch it until they travel to Lens on Wednesday night.
By then, Mesloub and Lens will already have secured what they came for. The question now is whether their late surge can delay PSG’s coronation – or force one last twist in a season that refuses to settle quietly.
