Berlin [Germany], April 26: Harry Kane scored the winner off the subs' bench as Bayern Munich fought from three goals to a 4-3 triumph at Mainz on Saturday after the freshly crowned Bundesliga champions almost paid the price for fielding a much changed line-up ahead of their big Champions League semi-final at Paris Saint-Germain.
Mainz led 3-0 from Dominik Kohr in the 15th, Paul Nebel in the 29th and Sheraldo Becker on the stroke of half-time against a Bayern team changed on eight positions from a mid-week German Cup win at Bayer Leverkusen.
Bayern coach Vincent Kompany made amends as Kane and Michael Olise came on for the second half and Jamal Musiala a little later. Bayern then duly turned the match around from Nicolas Jackson in the 53rd, Olise in the 73rd, Musiala in the 81st and Kane in the 83rd.
Bayern could have afforded a second league season defeat, having clinched a 35th national title with four games to spare last weekend.
The players celebrated wildly as the big comeback boosted confidence for Tuesday's first leg match at Champions League title holders PSG as part of their treble bid.
Confidence for PSG tie "Eeveryone is very happy. it does us good to go to Paris with this feeling," Musiala told Sky TV.
Leon Goretzka, the captain on the day, added: "We managed to keep up the momentum. It is almost greater to win like this than 3-0."
Mainz captain Nadiem Amiri said the game "shows why Bayern are the best team in the world.
"We played an unbelievable first half and knew what we would face in the second half. But it is hard to defend against this unbelievable quality," he said.
Teenager Bara Ndiaye got his starting 11 debut and 16-year-old Bastian Assomo was part of the squad for the first time while Joshua Kimmich and Dayot Upamecano were not even part of the Bayern squad.
The reserves performed a disastrous first half and it could have been worse than 3-0 had not Jonas Urbig, in goal for Manuel Neuer, made a handful of big saves.
Source: Qatar Tribune
