Robert Lewandowski scored the quickest hat-trick in Champions League history from the start of a match as Bayern Munich hammered Red Bull Salzburg 7-1.
With the tie finely poised after the first leg finished 1-1 in Salzburg last month, Bayern blew away from their opponents from the start.
Lewandowski was twice felled inside the penalty area and each time he made no mistake from the penalty spot as Bayern went two goals up within 21 minutes.
The Poland international added a third two minutes later two minutes later to break the record – eclipsing Marco Simone’s long-held record for Milan vs Rosenborg in 1996.
Serge Gnabry, Thomas Muller, twice, and Leroy Sane added further goals for the German champions, before Salzburg’s teenage substitute Maurits Kjaergaard netted a stunning consolation goal.
Here are five talking points from the game in Munich.
Lewandowski record
There is not much more to be said of Lewandowski, who remarkably scored three goals in a devastating spell of 10 minutes and 22 seconds to kill this tie.
He has now scored 42 goals in 35 matches this campaign and is now within 13 goals of his record goalscoring season – 55 in the 2019/20 season, when he fired Bayern to the treble.
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Lewandowski has now won 23 of his last 24 matches in the Champions League for Bayern – with the first leg of this tie the only blotch on that record – as he missed last season’s loss to Paris Saint-Germain through injury.
Prior to that game, he had won 22 consecutive matches in the competition – a record for any player.
Bayern blitz
Bayern Munich’s record in recent seasons is remarkable – they have now scored in 105 of their last 106 matches across all competitions.
Bayern had typically blitzed their way through the group stages of the competition, winning all six matches and netting 22 times in the process before the first leg draw in Salzburg last month.
That included two comprehensive three-goal victories over Barcelona – who were eliminated from the group with Benfica also qualifying – in a run that meant that has helped Bayern to scoring in 29 successive Champions League matches (stretching back to their scoreless draw at Liverpool in February 2019).
Indeed, such has been Bayern’s exploits in European competition in recent years, they had won 25 of their previous 27 matches and are undefeated in their previous 22 away matches in the competition.
Muller madness
Like so many previous times in his career, Thomas Muller was magnificent for Bayern – with two second half goals – but was overshadowed by the standout star on the night.
Tuesday’s goals took Muller up to four in the Champions league this campaign and 52 across his career in continental football.
As always, his style seems awkward – his second goal seeing a deflection off his standing foot – but there is little doubt of his continued effectiveness and difference-making in European competition.
Upamecano struggles
Bayern Munich won the race to sign central defender Dayot Upamecano this summer but not everything has gone to plan for the French international.
Upamecano joined Bayern from Bundesliga rivals RB Leipzig last year and explained his decision to stay in the Bundesliga while rejecting interest from Premier League giants.
Manchester United and Liverpool were both linked with a move for the defender, with the latter signing his former Leipzig defensive partner Ibrahima Konate last year.
The 23-year-old has been tipped to become one of the best defenders in the game after a fine few seasons at Leipzig but he has struggled at Bayern this year.
His fall in status see him start only as a second half substitute in this game and he has completed the full 90 minutes just three times for Bayern since December.
Salzburg dream ends
This was Red Bull Salzburg’s first ever Champions League knockout tie and the inexperienced side finally ran out of steam against arguably European football’s best attack.
The Austrian side were unfortunate not to win the first leg of this tie against an out-of-sorts Bayern and this result will be painful for a group of young players.
As with RB Leipzig, they are likely to continue establishing themselves at this stage of European competition in the years ahead.
