Harry Kane continued his record-breaking form by becoming the highest scoring Englishman in a single Bundesliga season with the winner in Bayern Munich’s 1-0 victory at struggling Cologne.

England captain Kane claimed his 18th goal of the season courtesy of a first-half tap-in to fire Bayern to the top of the table, above Bayer Leverkusen.

The 30-year-old striker’s remarkable tally is one more than Kevin Keegan managed for Hamburg in the 1978-79 campaign and the total Jadon Sancho registered for Borussia Dortmund in 2019-20.

His haul has come in just 12 league games since his big-money summer switch from Tottenham, while he has registered 22 goals in 17 outings in all competitions.

Thomas Tuchel’s side dominated proceedings against a team who remain second-bottom but squandered a host of chances to make the scoreline more emphatic, with Leroy Sane particularly culpable.

Unbeaten Bayern were back at RheinEnergieStadion for the first time since dramatically snatching the Bundesliga title from Dortmund on the final day of last season.

They began with purpose and were almost gifted an early lead when Cologne defender Timo Hubers inadvertently diverted the ball on to the outside of his own post with Kane waiting to pounce following fine work for Sane.

Former Manchester City forward Sane then failed to lift the ball over home goalkeeper Marvin Schwabe after being sent through on goal and later scuffed wastefully wide.

Kane’s decisive 20th-minute finish came between those golden chances.

He calmly slotted home on the rebound after Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting’s initial effort was blocked on the line by Julian Chabot to cap a swift Bayern counter-attack, started by Konrad Laimer’s interception.

Choupo-Moting almost doubled the lead two minutes later when he was denied by Schwabe.

Lowly Cologne, whose only win of the season was a 3-1 success over Borussia Monchengladbach on October 22, offered little from an attacking perspective in the opening period.

Visiting goalkeeper Manuel Neuer had to be alert to repel Rasmus Carstensen’s close-range header but the visitors were relatively untroubled.

For all of Bayern’s control, head coach Tuchel would have been eager to grab a second to secure the points.

However, chances were scant in a largely-forgettable second period which lacked tempo.

Sane saw a powerful effort blocked behind by Chabot, before Kingsley Coman headed against the crossbar from the resulting corner.

Bayern’s failure to kill off the game gave Cologne a glimmer of hope of snatching an unlikely draw going into the closing stages.

Yet the away side comfortably held on to move to the summit as the prolific Kane once again grabbed the headlines.