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Football: Poland’s Lewandowski bags Champions League brace

23.10.2019 11:00
Poland international Robert Lewandowski scored twice as his Bayern Munich side edged past Greek outfit Olympiakos 3-2 in their Champions League group stage match on Tuesday.
Robert Lewandowski (left) celebrates scoring the 2-1 lead for Bayern Munich against Olympiakos during their UEFA Champions League Group B soccer match at Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus, Greece, on Tuesday.
Robert Lewandowski (left) celebrates scoring the 2-1 lead for Bayern Munich against Olympiakos during their UEFA Champions League Group B soccer match at Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus, Greece, on Tuesday.Photo: EPA/GEORGIA PANAGOPOULOU

Lewandowski’s goals in the 34th and 62nd minutes of play marked the 57th and 58th times the Polish star striker has scored in the Champions League across 83 matches.

The 31-year-old Pole leads the competition’s scoring charts this season, with five goals, and is its fifth-highest all-time scorer, two goals behind France’s Karim Benzema.

Lewandowski earlier this month joined the list of the Champions League's top five marksmen when his Bayern routed English Premier League outfit Tottenham Hotspur 7-2.

The Pole struck a brace that day to equal Ruud van Nistelrooy of the Netherlands as the Champions League's fifth-best all-time goal scorer.

Lewandowski last month scored as his Bayern opened their Champions League group stage campaign with a 3-0 win over Serbian side Crvena Zvezda, better known as Red Star Belgrade.

The Polish star striker has now bagged 18 goals in 13 competitive matches for Germany's Bayern in the 2019/2020 season.

Earlier in October he became the German Bundesliga's fourth-highest scorer in history.

The Polish goal machine is a four-time Bundesliga top scorer and the division's all-time top non-German marksman.

Lewandowski, who also captains the Poland national team, is in the running for the 2019 Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball), awarded by France Football magazine to its pick as footballer of the year.

Several Poland internationals, among them Napoli striker Arkadiusz Milik and midfielder Piotr Zieliński as well as Lokomotiv Moscow midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak and Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny, are hoping to make their mark in this season’s Champions League.

Thirty-two teams will take part in a total of six rounds of fixtures in the Champions League group stage, which kicked off on September 18 and will conclude on December 11.

The Champions League final will be played on May 30 next year at the Atatürk Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.

(gs)

Source: TVP Sport, PAP, bundesliga.com