Lewandowski’s hattrick on Champions League with Barca
It’s time to take Xavi‘s team seriously in Europe’s premier league once more after Robert Lewandowski’s hat-trick on his Champions League debut for Barca.
They suddenly appear to be contenders once more after years of humiliating Champions League failures and last year’s embarrassing early exit into the Europa League,
a competition they later failed to have an impact in.
FC Barcelona- Viktoria plzen Played on 09/07/ 2022
Barca knew Bayern would be a far tougher test next Tuesday, but with their former Munich center-forward taking the initiative once more,
they fear no one. Viktoria Plzen gave little resistance.
Now that both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have eight hat-tricks in the Champions League,
Lewandowski is catching up to them. He has six,
and no one has lit up the Camp Nou on a significant European night in such a spectacular way since Messi. Everything passed through him,
and he scored three goals from three shots on goal.
With eight goals in five games, he has failed to reach goals like scoring in Europe,
La Liga, or a hat-trick.
Franck Kessie scored the first goal from a corner,
something Barca hadn’t done since November 2020, and it came from an unexpected place.
After receiving a feed from Sergio Roberto,
Lewandowski swept in the second from just inside the penalty area. The goal marked the Pole’s sixth since joining and his fourth in his past three games. Seventh goal wouldn’t be far behind at all.
Lewandowski headed the ball past Jindrich Stanek
with a header after the exceptional Ousmane Dembele won the ball on the right and sent the ideal cross right-footed.
Due to an injury,
Roberto was replaced by Gerard Pique at halftime,
and Jules Kounde switched to the right back position. It had been a night of atonements, with Jordi Alba, who started the game, and Pique both returning to the Camp Nou field.
Jan Sykora scored a goal for Plzen just before halftime,
and on the 65th minute, Tomas Chory may have further reduced the deficit, but he shot high over the goal. After the miss, he left, making it his final involvement.
Lewandowski scored his third goal after a deft pass from substitute Ferran Torres,
and Barca quickly made it five when the former Manchester City player
scored off of Dembele’s skillfully lofted ball over the top of the visitors’ defence.After his problems with injuries throughout the summer,
Torres needed a goal to rebuild his confidence. With out-of-sorts players starring and those few minutes playing a part, it was victory, win, win for Xavi. Pablo Torre,
19, even made his professional debut.
At least under Xavi, Dembele has never been out of sorts,
and he continues to pay back the coach’s unwavering confidence in him.
On any other night,
his display would have been the highlight of Barcelona’s victory, but Lewandowski will now take centre stage.
He came to Barca with the intention of winning the Champions League, and this empowering victory, sparked by his hat-trick, was the ideal way to get there. Bayern, here we come next week.