MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) -Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski grabbed the earliest hat-trick in Champions League historical past with three objectives by the twenty third minute because the Germans steamrollered Salzburg 7-1 on Tuesday to ebook a spot within the quarter-finals with an 8-2 combination rating.
The 33-year-old Poland striker scored 3 times in an 11-minute spell as he opened his account with two nearly equivalent penalties within the twelfth and twenty first earlier than netting on the break two minutes later for his fifth hat-trick ever within the competitors.
The last-16 tie was all however over by the half-hour mark when Serge Gnabry beat beleaguered Salzburg goalkeeper Philipp Koehn with a low shot to make it 4-0 earlier than a Thomas Mueller double and Leroy Sane strike within the second half wrapped up the win.
“This was an announcement, an exclamation mark,” stated Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer.
Bayern, who’ve been unpredictable within the Bundesliga this yr, have now scored seven or extra objectives in a Champions League sport for a document seventh time.
“We began nicely and introduced ourselves in a different way from latest weeks. That provides you hope that it will go on. You might see from the beginning that we had an excellent angle,” stated Neuer.
The keeper additionally set a document with his 104th look within the competitors, overtaking present membership CEO Oliver Kahn because the Bayern keeper with essentially the most video games within the Champions League.
GOLDEN CHANCES
Salzburg had two golden probabilities early within the sport and got here agonisingly near an equaliser within the fifteenth minute when Neuer, again from a knee damage, pulled off the save of the sport to tip Nicolas Seiwald’s missile over the bar.
But though Salzburg had not conceded greater than two objectives in a aggressive match this season, they may do nothing to cease in-form Lewandowski.
The Pole twice pressured defender Maximilian Woeber to fell him for a penalty earlier than beating him once more on the rebound for his third objective.
Worse was to return after the break when Mueller turned superbly within the field to drill within the fifth objective within the 54th.
“The sport was of big significance for us,” Mueller stated. “Had we been eradicated at present we’d have confronted three unhappy months and folks can be rightly questioning issues.”
Salzburg teenager Maurits Kjaergaard bought a comfort for the guests within the seventieth minute with his first European objective.
Mueller, nonetheless, bagged his second of the night 13 minutes later earlier than Leroy Sane accomplished the rout within the 86th.
“Today it was an opponent on a special degree,” Salzburg defender Rasmus Kristensen stated.
“We had some probabilities however in the event you don’t make them depend it is tough. It had nothing to do with angle, focus or the match plan. They merely had been higher in all points – that is it.”
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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