Harry Kane has acknowledged the fact that helping Bayern Munich progress in the Champions League could have a detrimental effect on Tottenham qualifying for next year's competition.
The England captain, 30, came through the academy ranks at Spurs and is the club's all-time leading goalscorer with 280 goals. He left Spurs to join Bayern in the summer for a club record €100million (£86.4m) to win major trophies.
Unfortunately for Kane, Bayern have endured a disappointing season; their domestic dominance in the Bundesliga was ended by Bayer Leverkusen at the weekend and the Champions League is now the striker's final opportunity to win silverware this season.
If Bayern were to progress at Arsenal's expense and Leverkusen knock West Ham out of the Europa League later this week, Germany would be in pole position to acquire the additional Champions League spot on offer to the country with the highest UEFA co-efficiency ranking. Tottenham are fifth in the Premier League as things stand and would miss out if England fails to bank the additional spot.
When that scenario was put to Kane in an awkward moment in his pre-Arsenal press conference, he admitted: “I don’t really know how to answer that! What will be, will be. I can’t control other things outside of that.”
The former Spurs talisman then added: “Of course, I know there will be a lot of Spurs fans watching hoping Bayern Munich go through tomorrow night. I can't focus on that. All I can do is try and beat the team in front of us, and that's Arsenal.”
While it's been a disappointing season for Bayern as a collective, Kane has averaged a goal a game in all competitions, plundering 39 in total.
Kane was on the losing team when Tottenham were beaten by Liverpool in the 2019 Champions League final and admitted that he's itching to make amends with Bayern this year. He said: “Yeah, for sure, whenever you reach the final of a competition and don’t quite get over the line there’s always that burning fire inside you to get back there and go that one step further.
“We have an opportunity this year and with a big moment tomorrow and if we can take that step then we’re only a couple of games away from trying to get to Wembley.
"It’s still in the distance at the moment, it may come around quickly but all my focus is on tomorrow and that’s all I can do. All I can do is to put in my best performance, help the team’s best performance and then step by step we can try and reach our goals.”