Robert Lewandowski scores hat-trick as Bayern Munich cruise to win – European round-up | Football News

Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick to make it 300 Bundesliga career goals as he steered them to a 4-0 win at Cologne on Saturday that restored a six-point lead at the top.

Bundesliga top scorer Lewandowski rifled in from a Thomas Muller assist in the ninth minute to set a league record as Bayern have now scored in 66 consecutive Bundesliga matches.

With Dortmund having beaten Freiburg 5-1 on Friday to provisionally move within three points of the leaders, Bayern were eager to make sure of victory quickly.

They scored again when Corentin Tolisso beautifully combined with Muller to thunder a shot into the top corner in the 25th minute.

The hosts, who were on a three-game winning run, tried to get back into the game and put the ball in the net through Mark Uth after the half-hour mark but it was ruled offside.

Lewandowski killed off the game just past the hour, chipping the ball past Cologne keeper Marvin Schwaebe to make it 3-0.

The 33-year-old Pole bagged his 23rd goal of the campaign, and his 300th in the Bundesliga having also played for Borussia Dortmund, when he slotted home from close range after good work by Leroy Sane 12 minutes later.

Lewandowski is second on the league’s all-time scorers list with only Bayern great Gerd Mueller ahead of him with 365 goals.

The Bavarians, chasing a record-extending 10th consecutive league title, have 46 points from 19 games with Dortmund in second place on 40.

Serie A: Immobile fires Lazio into sixth

Ciro Immobile scored twice to climb to the top of the Serie A scoring charts as Lazio beat COVID-hit bottom side Salernitana 3-0 on Saturday to go sixth.

The Italy international struck twice in the opening 10 minutes to take his tally for the season to 17 goals, one more than Fiorentina’s Dusan Vlahovic.

Immobile’s second was his 140th Serie A goal since joining the Roman club ahead of the 2016/17 campaign.

That tally is second only to Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski (179 goals) and Lionel Messi of Paris St Germain (163) in Europe’s top-five leagues during that period.

The 31-year-old was close to a hat-trick when his glancing header struck the underside of the bar, as the visitors dominated against a Salernitana side missing six players through COVID-19.

Substitute Manuel Lazzari completed a comfortable win by finishing off a flowing counter-attack after the break.

Maurizio Sarris side rose to sixth place on 35 points, three behind Juventus, while Salernitana remain bottom with 11 points.

Elsewhere, ninth-placed Torino came from behind to beat relegation battling Sampdoria 2-1 in Genoa, as Wilfried Singo and Dennis Praet responded to Francesco Caputos opener.