10 March,2022 08:17 AM IST | Munich | AFP
Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski celebrates after scoring against Salzburg during Tuesday’s Champions League tie. Pic/Getty Images
Robert Lewandowski scored a record-breaking 11-minute hat-trick to send Bayern Munich sailing into the Champions League quarter-finals with a 7-1 win at home to Red Bull Salzburg on Tuesday.
The Polish striker had three goals to his name by the 23rd minute - the earliest anyone has ever completed a hat-trick in a Champions League game - as Bayern shook off their early nerves to crush Salzburg.
The Austrian champions had held Bayern to a 1-1 draw in the first leg, but their hopes of an upset in Munich were left in tatters when Lewandowski scored a tap-in and two penalties to send Bayern on their way to a famous victory.
With just ten minutes and 27 seconds between Lewandowski's first and third goals, it was the fastest of the six hat-tricks the Pole has now scored in the Champions League. Bayern started with an attack-heavy 3-5-2, but they looked nervy at the back and there were chances at both ends in the opening minutes.
Lewandowski forced a sharp save from Philipp Koehn with the first attack of the game, while Nicolas Capaldo was denied at the other end by a brilliant block from Kingsley Coman. Lewandowski gratefully tucked away a penalty to give Bayern the lead on 12 minutes after he was brought down by Maximilian Woeber in the box.
Serge Gnabry drilled home a crushingly inevitable fourth after an elegant passing move on the half-hour mark. Thomas Mueller curled a brilliant shot into the bottom corner to make it 5-0 shortly after half time, before Bayern switched on cruise control.
The guests grabbed a consolation goal with a clinical counter-attack 20 minutes from time, Dane Maurits Kjaergaard, 18, smashing a Geoff-Hurst-like finish into the top corner past Manuel Neuer.
But the hosts had the last word as Mueller stroked home his second and Lewandowski set up Sane for Bayern's seventh a few minutes from time.
Liverpool: Liverpool crept into a fourth Champions League quarter-final in five years despite a rare 0-1 defeat at Anfield to Inter Milan as the English giants progressed 2-1 on aggregate. The Italian champions were unable to scale the mountain they had to climb after losing the first leg 0-2 at home three weeks ago despite Lautaro Martinez's sensational strike into the top corner just after the hour mark.
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