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6 months ago
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Thomas Tuchel has insisted he had to take Harry Kane off against Real Madrid because he was injured.
The Bayern Munich boss was slammed for his call to remove Kane in place of Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting after 85 minutes in the Champions League semi-final.
Bayern were 1-0 up at the time but capitulated, with Joselu scoring two goals in three minutes to knock them out 4-3 on aggregate, and Tuchel took heat for the change.
Owen Hargreaves and Paul Scholes pilloried the call and suggested it cost them the game but Tuchel has now explained why his 44-goal striker had to come off.
'Kane was having back problems. It was no longer possible,' Tuchel told TNT Sports.
Thomas Tuchel said he had to take off Harry Kane because he had an injured back
Bayern were leading 1-0 when they took off Kane but Joselu scored two late goals for Real Madrid
'We started with a front four and all four had to go out with injury or cramp. The front four all said they had to go.’
‘It hurts. It’ll take a while to recover, but on the one hand it’s a loss where we left it all out on the pitch.
‘Of course, it’s tough to accept. It’s part of reality. No regrets. But on the other, there were too many injuries, a few too many substitutions, too many cramps.'
Bayern thought they were on course for a repeat of the 2013 Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund when Alphonso Davies put them ahead against the run of play after 68 minutes.
And with two minutes to go of the 90 minutes, Die Roten were still on course to pull off a shock victory at the Santiago Bernabeu - but Joselu had other ideas.
The former Stoke City man seized on a Manuel Neuer mistake to equalised after 88 minutes and prodded home after a minute of extra-time to turn the game on its head.
It was a remarkable feat for a man who has been relegated in his last two seasons.
Tuchel initially took flak for taking off Kane from Hargreaves on TNT Sports.
Owen Hargreaves decribed Tuchel taking Kane off as one of 'the biggest call' he had seen
Paul Scholes was heavily critical of Tuchel's changes, describing them as 'strange'
'I'll tell you what was unexpected, Harry Kane going off the pitch. That's one of the biggest subs I've ever seen in a game of football of that magnitude,' he said.
'To take off a guy that's scored 44 goals, who is the most durable player pretty much anywhere and you bring on another striker in Choupo-Moting. Maybe he wanted height for corners, I don't know.
'You cannot take him off. There's five minutes left in the game, there's ten minutes of extra-time, 15 minutes. I said to Scholesy straight away, they're going to score.'
Hargreaves stated that Bayern had the game in their hands but 'let it go'.
He said: 'That's one of the biggest calls [I've seen]. I love Thomas Tuchel. I don't know why they made that call. Kim came on ten minutes before that and they were quite comfy. They went from a back four to a back three. Bayern had it in their hands and they let it go. The mistake from Neuer obviously but everybody's going to be talking about the subs, you cannot take Harry Kane off.'
Scholes said: ‘It ended up a game of substitutions. Good ones for Real Madrid. Joselu with the two goals, brilliant. Wins his team the game. Neuer makes a huge mistake which he’ll be disappointed with.
‘I thought Tuchel’s substitutions were strange. Kane was strange. Even if they get one goal, there’s still extra-time, penalties to come as well, you know how strong he is.
‘Kim was the stranger one. I thought they looked quite comfortable in the game up until that point. They go to three at the back. Kim coming off last week was a disaster for him and again he looked a little bit all over the place.'
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