Kane one goal away from matching Ronaldo's Champions League scoring run

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Harry Kane arrives at the Emirates Stadium on the brink of history. The Bayern Munich striker has scored in nine successive Champions League matches and a goal tonight against Arsenal would move him to within one game of matching a record currently held solely by Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored in 11 consecutive matches in the competition.

Kane, who left Arsenal's academy as an eight year old, has returned to haunt the club on plenty of occasions since. He has scored 15 goals in 22 appearances against Arsenal across his career, a tally that stands out even against his own remarkable numbers.

The England captain has been in extraordinary form in general. He scored 73 goals for club and country during the 2025-26 campaign, a total only beaten this century by Lionel Messi's 82 in 2011-12. Last week, against Viking, Kane scored a brace that took him past Messi's record for Champions League goals scored after the age of 30, with Messi managing 35 in his thirties to Kane's current 36.

He now sits joint eighth on the Champions League's all-time scoring list with 57 goals, level with Bayern great Thomas Muller. Kane is also the top scoring English player in the competition's history, the first Englishman to score in seven straight Champions League matches, and holds the record for most goals by an English player in a single Champions League campaign with 14 in 2025-26, according to football.london.

Backed for the Ballon d'Or

Kane's form arrives just days before this year's Ballon d'Or ceremony in London. Some bookmakers have him as a 2/5 favourite to become the first Englishman since Michael Owen in 2001 to win the award.

His profile within Bayern Munich's camp appears to reflect that standing. Kane was not required for pre-match media duties this week, despite usually being a fixture before games against English opposition, a sign his record now speaks for itself.

Teammate Serge Gnabry was full of praise for the striker ahead of the trip to north London. “He always has the right mindset, always goes forward, always leads,” Gnabry said. “I spoke to him the other day, he just has a good mindset where he never gets thrown out of his lane if I can say it like that. He just helps the team in such ways with his performances, he brings the team together by being unselfish and those are great attributes and he's a top, top player to have on your team.”

Gnabry added: “He's had an incredible year, so for me of course he's done enough.” Bayern assistant coach Aaron Danks was similarly effusive, stating: “His all-round game is at such a high level. He can be our best defender in training if he wants to, he can be our best playmaker and he can come and score goals.”

The challenge for Arsenal

Arsenal's defence will be tasked with doing what plenty of sides have failed to do this season: keep Kane off the scoresheet. A clean sheet tonight would not only be valuable for Arsenal's own Champions League campaign, it would also halt one of the most eye catching individual records in world football before it reaches Ronaldo's benchmark.