We interrupt your normal UEFA Champions League post-match programming to bring you this special announcement: Robert Lewandowski just went supernova.
The Polish international scored four times on Wednesday, leading Borussia Dortmund to a 4-1, first leg win over Real Madrid in the team’s Champions League semifinal. Combined with yesterday’s 4-0 win by Bayern Munich, Germany’s big two have outscored their Spanish counterparts 8-1 over 180 minutes, leaving no doubt which teams will faceoff in May 25th’s final.
As remarkable as that is, it’s a mere footnote on a breakout performance from BVB’s 24-year-old sniper. Lewandowski’s four gaols mark the first time a player’s scored as many in a Champions League semifinal. It’s also the most goals anybody’s ever scored against Real Madrid in European competition.
And he did it all over the course of an hour:
- 8’ – Lewandowski starts his day with this redirection, getting his shoe just beyond Pepe’s to put BVB up 1-0:
- 50’ – Staying just onside at the edge of Diego Lopez’s area, Lewandowski turns on a ball and beats the Real Madrid keeper to reclaim BVB’s lead. The Merengues protested, but replays showed the officials made the right (non-) call:
- 55’ – The Goal of the Day. A ball put in by Marcel Schmelzer after allows Lewandowski to turn and blast a high, unstoppable shot into Lopez’s net. The rout is on:
- 67’ – Xabi Alonso plows through the back of Marco Reus, leaving no doubt. It’s a penalty, and it’s Lewandowski’s chance for four. Going high and to the middle while Lopez goes right, the Dortmund sniper makes history.
If in numbers and not necessarily style, the performance was Messi-esque, with only the Barcelona dynamo able to produce this type of product over Champions League’s recent tournaments. But Messi’s landslides never came in semifinals against Real Madrid.
Lewandowski? This was an already well-establish star exploding: A supernova.
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