Bayern Munich survive a scare at newly promoted Elversberg, winning 2-1 through Harry Kane

SV Elversberg's fairytale start to Bundesliga life survives on paper by the thinnest of margins now, but it very nearly did not end at all on Saturday. Bayern Munich needed a 72nd-minute Harry Kane goal to escape the Ursapharm-Arena with a 2-1 win, and for long stretches of the afternoon it looked like the newly promoted side — winners of both their opening two top-flight matches, a first for the club in its history — might do something Bundesliga history had not seen in this fixture before, because there had never been a Bundesliga fixture between these two clubs at all. This was the first-ever meeting between Elversberg and Bayern at this level.

Bayern took the lead through Lennart Karl in the 26th minute, the teenager finishing off a move started by Ismael Saibari, and for a while it looked like business as usual for Vincent Kompany's side. Elversberg had other ideas. Cole Campbell thought he had levelled before half-time only for VAR to chalk it off for offside, and the leveller did eventually arrive — just not from Campbell. Maurice Krattenmacher curled a stunning effort from outside the box past the Bayern goalkeeper in the 61st minute, a goal Bundesliga's own shot-probability model rated at just 7%, the kind of strike that had the home crowd bouncing and the champions suddenly needing an answer on the road against a team that had not lost all season.

Kane answers, again

Kompany's response was to throw more attacking talent at the problem, sending on Jamal Musiala, Luis Díaz, Alphonso Davies and Joshua Kimmich in a wave of substitutions. It worked. Kane scored the winner in the 72nd minute, finishing off a slick passing move involving Musiala, Michael Olise and Aleksandar Pavlović to restore Bayern's lead for good. It was Kane's first Bundesliga goal of the 2026-27 season — after a Super Cup goal against Dortmund and a matchday-1 hat-trick-adjacent afternoon against Stuttgart, the England captain had gone quiet in the league before finding the net exactly when Bayern needed it most.

Match facts

• 26' — Lennart Karl (Bayern Munich), assisted by Ismael Saibari
• 61' — Maurice Krattenmacher (SV Elversberg), assisted by Noah Darvich
• 72' — Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), assisted by Aleksandar Pavlović

The xG split — Bayern more than five and a half times Elversberg's number — is the clearest sign of how one-sided the underlying chances were, even with the visitors needing a late goal to actually win it. Pavlović led Bayern's midfield for pass efficiency and absorbed more defensive pressure than any other player on the pitch, while Kane's Man of the Match award (37% of the fan vote) reflected a night where he was the constant outlet even before his goal arrived.

A result that says as much about Bayern's form as Elversberg's

Bayern arrived at the Ursapharm-Arena on the back of an odd little run: a comfortable Super Cup win over Dortmund, a 5-1 demolition of Stuttgart on the opening weekend, then a goalless draw at newly promoted Schalke that snapped an 18-month scoring streak. This was the third game in a row against a side from the bottom half of expectations, and for the second time in three, Bayern found scoring harder than the form book suggested it should be. Kompany's team is unbeaten through three matchdays, but the margins — a stunner conceded, a VAR-saved scare before it — are tighter than the eventual 5-1 opening day suggested they would be.

For Elversberg, the defeat ends a perfect start but does nothing to dent what has already been one of the best promoted-side openings the Bundesliga has seen in years: two wins from two, including a 3-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen, before running a full-strength Bayern Munich to the wire on their own ground. Bayern had gone into the weekend sixth with four points from two games, behind Augsburg, Freiburg, Dortmund and Elversberg themselves at the top of a congested early table; a third straight unbeaten result keeps them within touching distance of that pace-setting group heading into the international break.