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Lewandowski Puts Salzburg Away With Earliest Hat Trick in Champions League History

The Polish star gave Bayern Munich a substantial lead early in the first half of the round of 16 second leg vs. RB Salzburg.

Andrew Gastelum

Lewandowski Puts Salzburg Away With Earliest Hat Trick in Champions League History
Lewandowski Puts Salzburg Away With Earliest Hat Trick in Champions League History /

Robert Lewandowski didn’t wait long to call game. 

Just 23 minutes into a Champions League round of 16 second leg meeting with RB Salzburg, Lewandowski gave Bayern a 3–0 lead with the earliest hat trick in the competition’s history. 

For Bayern, Lewandowski’s hat trick was just the start of a busy night in attack as the Bundesliga giants routed Salzburg, 7–1 (8–2 aggregate).

Lewandowski opened the scoring in the 12th minute when his turn in the penalty area proved to be too much for RB Salzburg’s Maximilian Wöber, who brought the forward down for a penalty. Lewandowski then stepped to the spot for the penalty, which was the first of three goals in 11 minutes.

Nine minutes later, Wöber brought down Lewandowski inside the penalty box once again. Much like his first goal, the Polish star picked the same corner for his second penalty goal of the night. 

Then, in the 23rd, luck proved to be on Lewandowski’s side following a chaotic Bayern counter attack. After Thomas Müller slipped a pass through toward Lewandowski, RB Salzburg keeper Philipp Köhn appeared to beat the forward to the ball, but instead launched his clearance off Lewandowski and into the net. 

Things didn’t get any better for RB Salzburg as Serge Gnabry added a fourth Bayern goal in the 31st minute.

Bayern came into the second leg having barely survived the first, needing a 90th-minute equalizer from Kingsley Coman to salvage a draw in Austria. But by halftime in Munich, the Austrian visitors were staring down a 5–1 aggregate deficit. 

It didn’t get much better for Salzburg in the second half with Müller adding two goals before Leroy Sané’s 85th-minute strike concluded the night. However, Salzburg was able to pull one back when U.S. men’s national team midfielder Brenden Aaronson  assisted on Maurits Kjaergaard’s goal in the 70th minute. 

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Andrew Gastelum
ANDREW GASTELUM

Andrew Gastelum is a programming editor and writer at Sports Illustrated who specializes in soccer, the Olympics and international sports. He joined the SI staff in March 2021 and previously contributed to Howler Magazine and NBC Sports. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame alum and is currently based in Italy.

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