The international break is upon us, and England are eased into their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign with fixtures against San Marino and Albania.
But then Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions must face the most lethal goalscorer in European football: Poland’s Robert Lewandowski.
The striker comes into this break in the form of his career, having scored a perfect first-half hat-trick for 10-man Bayern Munich in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Stuttgart. Here are nine stats to illustrate just how good he’s been.
– Last season, Lewandowski scored 55 goals in all competitions in Bayern’s treble win. They can’t win another treble this season, but he’s on course to break his own previous-best record with 42 goals already.
– Since the turn of the year, the striker has scored in 15 of 17 starts, including each of his last eight. He’s scored 22 goals in 18 appearances in 2021 so far, with 13 in his last eight.
– The Poland international has already surpassed his career-best tally of 34 Bundesliga goals from last season. Up to 35 already, he’s well on course to beat Gerd Muller’s legendary tally of 40 goals during the 1971-72 season. He needs to score six goals in the last eight games to break the near 50-year record.
Poprzednia grafika aktualna była przez minutę 😉 Robert Lewandowski vs Gerd Muller. Już 35 #FCBayern , #Bundesliga , #Lewandowski , @lewy_official
, #LewanGOALski , #torjager , pic.twitter.com/avHVPcJzH0
— PawelK🗿 (@PwlKzdr) March 20, 2021
– With 35 goals, he’s 14 ahead of Erling Haaland and Andre Silva in the Bundesliga top scorers list this season. It’s also 12 more than any other players in Europe’s top five leagues – with familiar foes Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo joint-second for the Golden Boot.
– That’s a rate of 1.5 goals every 90 minutes in the Bundesliga. Atalanta super-sub Luis Muriel matches that, having played fewer than half as many minutes but further down the list are Zlatan Ibrahimovic (1.1 goals per 90), Erling Haaland (1.1), Ronaldo (1.0), Kylian Mbappe (1.0) and Messi (0.9).
– He’s now up to second in the all-time Bundesliga top scorers list, with 269 goals. He’s averaged 24 Bundesliga goals a season since he signed for Borussia Dortmund in 2010 and 28 since he signed for Bayern in 2014.
– At the age of 32, there’s every chance that the striker can catch Muller’s record of 365 total Bundesliga goals. Three more seasons at his current rate would do it.
Right foot ⚽️
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Left foot ⚽️Robert Lewandowski's first-half hat-trick was also a perfect hat-trick! ?
Unstoppable. pic.twitter.com/zfhL6ilt1U
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) March 20, 2021
– He’s also Poland’s all-time top scorer with 61 senior international goals – 17 more than the previous record-holder Wlodzimierz Lubanski. That’s also eight more than England’s all-time top scorer, Wayne Rooney, and nearly twice as many as our current top scorer Harry Kane (32).
– Since the start of last season, Lewandowski has scored 103 goals in all competitions for club and country. Yes, you read that correctly.
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