Bayern Munich striker, Robert Lewandowski has finally laid his hand on the Champions League trophy. The striker, even showed how he wanted the trophy by sleeping and waking up with it the next morning after beating Paris Saint-Germain to it.
The closest the 31-year-old has got to winning the trophy was in 2013 all Germany final that saw his former team, Borussia Dortmund, losing it to Bayern Munich.
Having tormented many defenses across the continent, Lewandowksi finally got his hands on the UEFA Champions League trophy in 2019/20.
Like they say, no pain without gain. So let’s look at some of his greatest achievements on the European stage.
Robert Lewandowski begins his Champions League goalscoring record against Ajax
The Polish began his Champions League career in a good fashion. He opened his made his debut during a 3-1 group-stage defeat at Olympiacos in October 2011. He however started his goal scoring record with a late winner against Ajax in 2012/13. This began an incredible success story.
The Polish got BVB the maximum points at the dearth by controlling a Lukasz Piszczek header near the penalty spot. He then held off his marker and cleverly dummied a shot, before thrashing home the only goal.
Four goals against Real Madrid
Lewandowski proved to be a great poacher by netting the opener in a 2-1 home win over Real Madrid in that same season.
In the team’s meeting against Real in Germany again, the former Lech Poznan striker stretched to poke home a Mario Götze cross to give Dortmund a dream start on eight minutes. Cristiano Ronaldo leveled for the Galacticos shortly before half-time.
Lewandowski changed the tie five minutes into the second half, by prodding in from close range.
Five minutes later, the Poland international turned sharply away from Pepe and Xabi Alonso to hammer home his hat-trick goal. He made it four on 65 minutes by thumping a penalty down the middle.
Apart from it being the first time a player will ever score four goals in a Champions League semi-final, it was enough for Dortmund to edge Jose Mourinho’s team over two legs.
Before joining Bayern in the summer of 2014, Lewandowski scored six goals in Europe for Dortmund. He continued from where he stopped by netting nine Champions League goals in 2015/16 season and eight in both 2016/17 and 2018/19.
Robert Lewandowski’s time to finally be a Champions League winner
In a bid to become a European champion at 31, Lewandowski reached new heights in the 2019/20 season with doubles in away wins at Tottenham (7-2) and Olympiacos (3-2). He then sealed Bayern’s place in the last 16 with another goal against the Greeks in Munich.
He became ruthless on Matchday 5 in Belgrade, by repeating his four-goal burst from his Dortmund days. He managed it in record time.
It could be recalled that he had scored five goals in just nine minutes of a Bundesliga match against Wolfsburg in September 2015. But this time, he didn’t score quite as many or quite as quickly against the Serbian champions in November 2019. The four goals came in 16 second-half minutes which was a new Champions League record.
Robert Lewandowski nets fifty Champions League goals for Bayern
Lewandowski continued to be ruthless in a prolonged 2019/20 campaign culminating into winning the Champions League.
Having won a domestic double, he was crowned the Bundesliga’s top goalscorer. This is the fifth time of his career after finishing with 34 league goals for the eight-in-a-row champions.
After scoring a brace in the DFB Cup final victory over Bayer Leverkusen, Lewandowski picked up from where he left off in Europe. Having scored once and got two assists in the first leg of Bayern’s round-of-16 tie with Chelsea in February, Lewandowski scored twice again in the second leg in Munich.
After scaling through the last 16, Bayern had to complete their Champions League journey in Lisbon due to COVID-19.
He scored a sensational goal against Barcelona in the 8-2 drubbing in the quarter-final to mark his 50th Champions League goal for the Bavarians.
2019/20 Champions League top goalscorer
He didn’t stop there. Lewandowksi was unhappy in the semi-finals against Lyon despite his team leading 2-0. He eventually smiled after scoring with a beautiful header.
Although, he was unabale to score during the 2019/20 final against Paris Saint-Germain, winning the trophy and taking home the highest goal scorer award was enough for the Polish.
This is because out of Bayern’s 43 Champions League goals, 15 were from the lanky striker.
