Watkins talks up Kane rivalry before Champions League clash with Bayern

The question related to Harry Kane and the easy answer was the equivalent of a tap-in but instead Ollie Watkins paused before offering a candid assessment of the nuanced dynamic at play. For Watkins, Kane is his England captain, a teammate but also, to put it bluntly, the guy he is trying to displace. Kane, of course, is the country’s all-time record goalscorer and a guaranteed starter. But in Dortmund three months ago Watkins replaced Kane to score a superb, instinctive 90th-minute winner against the Netherlands to send England into the Euro 2024 final.

It was surely the biggest moment of the Aston Villa striker’s career, an extraordinary journey that has taken him from on loan at Weston-super-Mare to the Champions League, in which Watkins and Kane are likely to line up against each other on Wednesday. Bayern Munich and Kane flew to Birmingham on Tuesday before a rerun of the 1982 European Cup final in Rotterdam, won by Villa courtesy of a Peter Withe goal.

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Bayern are optimistic Kane will shake off an ankle injury sustained in Saturday’s draw with Bayer Leverkusen to feature at Villa Park. Watkins, asked whether Kane is constantly helping him and vice-versa when the pair are on England duty, alluded to the competitive backdrop that naturally underpins their relationship. “Umm, that’s a tough question, to be honest,” came Watkins’s reply. “Everyone is fighting for a position on the pitch. Obviously, I want to be the man to play but day in and day out we have a good relationship, we talk and when I’m in the camp I speak to him so there’s no animosity and I’m doing all I can to be on the pitch and so is he.”

Watkins and Kane spent more than six weeks together before and during the European Championship in Germany. “Harry is a top player, everyone knows what he’s capable of, he’s shown what he can do over the previous seasons so everyone knows his threat but the whole Bayern team are one of the best teams in the competition,” Watkins said. “He’s got the records and scored the amount of goals he has for a reason. He gets all the credit he deserves. He’s put in a lot of hard work over the years.”

Kane, who was withdrawn against Leverkusen with four minutes of normal time remaining, is expected to be fit to face Villa. Bayern’s sporting director, Max Eberl, provided a positive update on Kane on Tuesday. Kane has scored 10 goals in seven appearances this season, including four against Dinamo Zagreb in their Champions League opener. “He feels very good,” Eberl said. “But I am not a doctor, I cannot make any conclusions.” Manager Vincent Kompany confirmed later that a final assessment will be made on the 31-year-old’s fitness on Wednesday morning.

Watkins said he never envisaged representing Villa in the Champions League when Unai Emery was appointed in October 2022. “Not for one minute. We were towards the bottom of the [Premier] League, and never did I think we would finish that season [2022-23] seventh and then go on to finish fourth [in 2023-24]. He has completely turned us around as players and as a club, so full credit to him and us as players. I would never have dreamed of it.”