Spain’s La Liga: Barcelona ease to victory, injury woes for Real Madrid
Robert Lewandowski is a man in form.
The Polish striker scored a first-half hat-trick in a vintage performance on Sunday to give Barcelona a 3-0 win over Alavés and allow the Catalan club to remain in top spot in La Liga.
Lewandowski met a whipped cross from winger Raphinha with a header to open the scoring seven minutes in before the pair combined again to give the striker a tap-in 15 minutes later.
It only took Lewandowski just over half an hour to complete his hat-trick, rolling the ball past Antonio Sivera in the Alavés net on the 32nd minute mark to take his tally to 10 league goals in nine games.
Per the team, this is the 36-year-old’s third hat-trick for Barcelona and the 27th time he has achieved the feat at club level.
Barça manager Hansi Flick – who also coached Lewandowski at Bayern Munich – praised his star striker after the game and lauded his side’s attacking prowess.
“Everyone supports Lewy and he knows what to do in the box – in front of the goal he’s the best player for me,” Flick said after the match. “He’s been amazing over such a (long) period, to score so many goals, it’s very good. I am very happy with him. You can see he’s 100% fit and the other teammates are supporting him really well.
“Every training and when you have meetings, you show them from the tactical side and also positions are very important. They are doing great and the dynamic from these players is unbelievable and helps us a lot.
“At the end, we score so many goals which is good for us and helps us also for the next matches to have this confidence in our game, in our idea to play football,” he added.
