Kane's penalty miss costs Bayern in Klassiker thriller

There is a version of this weekend where Harry Kane lifts the Ballon d'Or and then goes and scores twice against Bayern Munich's biggest rivals to underline the point. Instead, the England captain spent large stretches of Der Klassiker on the wrong end of the story: a missed penalty, a shot that came back off the post, and a 2-2 scoreline that leaves Bayern still waiting to pull clear at the top.

A Klassiker that refused to settle

According to the Guardian, the match swung back and forth before Fabio Silva struck late to level it up for Borussia Dortmund, denying Vincent Kompany's side the win that would have stretched their advantage at the summit. Bayern had entered the weekend sitting first in the Bundesliga on 14 points from six games, with four wins, two draws and no defeats, and a goal difference of plus 17 that tells you exactly how comfortable most of their football has been this season.

Dortmund were never going to make this easy. The draw keeps both clubs level at the top on points, turning what could have been a statement afternoon for Bayern into a reminder that the title race has more than one contender in it this season.

Kane's afternoon to forget

For Kane personally, it was the kind of game that will get replayed in slow motion by Bayern fans long after the final whistle. A missed penalty is one thing. Hitting the frame of the goal on top of that, in the match that followed his Ballon d'Or coronation, is the sort of detail that writes its own headline.

It doesn't erase what Kane has done since arriving in Munich, where he has been the Bundesliga's most reliable finisher for two straight seasons. But Saturday was a reminder that even the best finisher in Europe has days where the ball simply won't go in, penalty spot included.

Title race

Bayern's squad was always going to be one of the two or three sides shaping this Bundesliga season. A draw at home to Dortmund doesn't derail that. But it does mean Kompany's side head into the next round still sharing top spot rather than sitting on it alone, and in a title race that tight, every dropped point against a direct rival gets filed away for later.