2 years ago
On his 100th appearance in the competition, the Poland captain easily stroked home two penalties inside 21 minutes, after being hauled down twice by Salzburg defender Maximilian Wober, the second confirmed after a VAR review.
His 40th goal of the season in all competitions came from his first spot-kick, which he stroked into the bottom-left corner.
After chasing down an attempted clearance from visiting goalkeeper Philipp Kohn, he scored his third goal from close range.It's the first time a hat-trick in the Champions League has been scored in the 23rd minute, however it's not the fastest treble in the competition; that honor belongs to Bafetimbi Gomis, who scored three goals in eight minutes for Lyon in a 7-1 win against Dinamo Zagreb in 2011.
Bayern's early start put them in command of a game that had been dubbed "all or nothing" by some in the Bavarian press after the six-time champions were beaten to a humiliating 1-1 draw in Austria in the first leg.
Matthias Jaissle's Salzburg had early chances, with Nicolas Capaldo and Nicolas Seiwald both missing golden chances.They were punished by the lethal Lewandowski before another defensive blunder allowed Serge Gnabry to add a fourth with a low shot that wiggled under Kohn, and Thomas Muller added a fifth after the half.
Maurits Kjaergaard managed a consolation goal with a thunderous shot into the top-left corner on an otherwise dreary night for the visitors.
But that only appeared to reawaken Julian Nagelsmann's side, with Muller completing a well-worked move for number six before Leroy Sane hammered home the equalizer.Bayern Munich is inspired by Lewandowski's masterclass.
After narrowly scraping a late draw in the first leg, much had been made of Bayern's defensive deficiencies, and Salzburg appeared to have a serious chance of becoming the first Austrian team to reach the final eight of this competition since 1985.
But when it came down to it, they couldn't match a masterpiece at the Allianz Arena, with Lewandowski serving as the trigger for a straightforward yet brutal performance by the hosts.The 33-year-old again outfoxed Wober to set the tone for the second leg, and his third - in which he scored 85 Champions League goals in three fewer games than Lionel Messi and 17 more than Cristiano Ronaldo - was all about his will to keep going.
After Cristiano Ronaldo (seven) and Lionel Messi (five), Lewandowski has become only the third player in Champions League history to score 10 or more goals in three or more different seasons.
Not satisfied to rest on his laurels, he also assisted on Muller's second goal before setting up Sane for Bayern's seventh goal of the evening.
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