Robert Lewandowski said he is not thinking about Gerd Müllers record after his hat-trick helped steer Bayern Munich to a sensational come-from-behind victory at home to Borussia Dortmund on Saturday, but he will inevitably be forced to ponder it sooner rather than later this season.
The 32-year-olds treble in securing a 4-2 victory in Der Klassiker took him to 31 league goals after just 24 rounds of matches, leaving the Polish hitman just nine short of Müllers 40-goal haul set in the 1971/72 season.
The Bayern No.9 scores so frequently hes averaging one every 63 minutes in the Bundesliga this season that his achievements often get drowned out in the vast sea of his ridiculous exploits. Another Lewandowski record? Whats new?
Watch:Highlights of Bayern’s win over Dortmund
Yet if you feel that sense of fatigue about to set in ahead of learning about yet more Lewandowski heroics, fight back, dear reader; it is not often that we are consciously aware of witnessing history in the making.
For example, nobody has ever broken the 30-goal barrier this early in a season in Germanys top flight. For context, Müller only had 26 after 24 games during that most prolific campaign almost 50 years ago.
Not only that, but Lewandowski has now registered at least three goals in a single league game for the 12th time, he has found the net at least once in 13 of his last 14 league games and has hit 20 in 14 matches against former club Dortmund.
Furthermore, his current tally of 31 goals would have been enough to earn him the top scorers crown in all but five seasons in Bundesliga history and he still has 10 games to play.
First of all I want to win the next game with my team, the striker said at the final whistle when asked about potentially overtaking Müllers best-mark. I want to score the goals, but its too early to think about this.
Perhaps, but if not for him Bayern would undoubtedly have struggled to turn an early 2-0 deficit into a 4-2 win. Lewandowski swept in from close range in the 26th minute to pull a goal back, equalised from the penalty spot just before half-time and drilled in low from the edge of the box in the final minute to round off what was ultimately a deserved win.
We know that maybe the first 15-20 minutes we didnt play well, he told bundesliga.com. But after the second goal we conceded, we knew that we had to push forward, we had to try and score the next goal.
And then the second half, we had the game under control and we said ‘come on boys, we have to try and score another goal’ because we want to get three points. We did and I think that was something special, and we showed everyone that we want to stay in first place.”
Watch: Lewandowski: “We showed everyone we want the title!”
Bayern retained their two-point lead at the summit over RB Leipzig, who had temporarily gone above them with a 3-0 victory in Freiburg earlier in the day, while the gap between Hansi Flicks side and sixth-placed Dortmund is now 16 points.
Flick himself was frustrated with his sides slow start, but insisted he preferred to focus on the positives in the wake of his sides 17th Bundesliga win of the season.
It was a sensational comeback from the whole team, the 55-year-old said. Lewy finished the chances off, thats what hes there for. Obviously were happy he scored three goals in such an important game after we were 2-0 down. The whole team deserve credit.