Robert Lewandowski Scores Hat Trick in Champions League Debut for Barcelona

When it comes to all-time Champions League goals, the race for third place is off and running with a Robert Lewandowski hat trick. 

In his first Champions League match for Barcelona on Wednesday, Lewandowski scored his 87th, 88th, and 89th career goals in the competition, breaking a tie for the third put on the untouched goalscoring list with Genuine Madrid’s Karim Benzema (86 objectives). He becomes the first player to score Champions League hat tricks for three different clubs (Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, and Barcelona).

After fellow summer arrival Franck Kessié opened the scoring against Viktoria Plzeň in the 13th minute, Lewandowski doubled Barcelona’s lead in the 34th minute. The Clean worldwide took a pass at the edge of the punishment region, faked a shot to get himself space, and tore a shot into the base corner for the objective.

The €45 million transfer from Bayern Munich then added a second at the stroke of halftime. Three minutes into first-half stoppage time, Lewandowski found himself wide open for the back-post header after Ousmane Dembélé did the defensive work to set up and then deliver the chance. 

The star forward completed his hat trick in the 67th minute when he completed a beautiful sequence set up by Ferran Torres, who chested the ball down and passed it off to Lewandowski for the accurate finish from 20 yards.

Lewandowski might get an opportunity to put some more distance between him and Benzema after the French forward experienced a quad injury against Celtic on Tuesday that is supposed to see him miss a large part of the following month. Benzema, who is likely to win the Ballon d’Or this year, led the Champions League in scoring last season with 15 goals.