Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski were in the spotlight of Tuesday night football as the duo put up exemplary performances for Manchester United and Bayern Munich respectively.
While the prior’s contribution salvaged his side a point, the latter’s endowment guided them to a dominating win. Both United and Bayern sit on top of their respective groups after the results of the Tuesday night Champions League fixtures.
The Red Devils will now be focusing on their weekend Premier League fixture against their derby rivals, Manchester City. It will also be a decisive one as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s future at the club depends on the outcome. Die Roten on the other hand will be looking for another routine win as they face third-placed SC Freiburg in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Ronaldo and Lewandowski Continue Their Goal-Scoring Run
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Brace Saves the Day
Where would United be if Mr Champions League had not joined them? If you exclude the goals scored by the Portuguese in the competition so far, United would be at the bottom of the table with just two points but his contributions have kept the club on level terms with Villarreal at the top.
The promising display by the club lasted only for a day as they were back to square one after the heroics against Tottenham Hotspur. The man in form, David De Gea committed his first error this season which resulted in Atalanta taking the lead. But United converted the first proper chance they got through a brilliant link-up.
The hosts took their lead once again as a defensive slip-up was brilliantly utilised by Duvan Zapata. However, Ronaldo scored once again as his sensational volley in the added time salvaged a point for the visitors.
With the brace, he has now scored more than half the goals scored by Manchester United in the Champions League this season. Along with that, he has also overtaken Solskjaer’s goal tally at United which stood at 126.
Hattrick Scorer Robert Lewandowski Breaks Records
As Ronaldo produced his magic in Italy, Lewandowski did one better in Germany. The 33-year-old striker seems to have taken the Ballon d’Or snub intensively as he has been smashing records since. Bayern Munich are incredibly strong, and Lewandowski’s form makes sure that they thrash every opponent.
Bayern became the second team along with Juventus to book their seats in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The German club were leading only by a goal at half-time. A missed penalty also added to their problems for the night.
However, they changed their gears in the second half with an utter assertive performance. By the time the final whistle was blown, Bayern scored five and registered a 5-2 scoreline, with Lewandowski, Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sane all on the scoresheet.
Bayern have scored a mammoth 15 goals this season, averaging almost four goals per game. This was also the first match where they conceded a goal. However, the victory celebration was topped by the records broken by the Polish striker.
This fixture marked Lewandowski’s 100th appearance in the Champions League, and he nows holds the mantle for the most goals(81) scored after the century mark, surpassing Lionel Messi’s(77) and Ronaldo’s(64) mark at that point. He also surpassed the legendary Gerd Muller as Bayern Munich’s top European scorer.
With the hattrick, he is now the leading goalscorer with eight goals in four appearances. Another unreal statistic to wind up his supremacy is that he has scored more goals than 26 teams that are participating this season.
Main Image Credit Embed from Getty Images
