Robert Lewandowski marked his 100th appearance at the Champions League with a hat-trick as he guided Bayern Munich to a 5-2 victory against Benfica.
He also set up another goal and missed a penalty as Bayern cruised into the knockout stage with two Group E matches to spare.
Lewandoski who is the 2020 world player of the year headed home his first goal in the 26th minute and chipped in another just past the hour. He went ahead and missed a penalty in first-half stoppage time but sealed his treble in the 85th minute.
Lewandoski has a total of 81 goals in the Champions League trailing behind Messi and Christiano Ronaldo who have123 and 139 goals respectively.
This was his fourth hat trick in the competition with Leonel Messi and Ronaldo having eight hat tricks.
Lewandoski has scored 20 goals this season for Bayern in just 18 games .
The Bayern star also is the fastest player to hit the tally of 80 goals: In 100 games Lewandoski bagged 80 goals with Ronaldo and Messi achieving this mark in their 102 and 116 games respectively.
Lewandoski is currently this season's leading scorer, having scored eight goals in four games to start the group stage campaign.
“I do not know if it was the perfect game because I did miss a penalty, but better to miss early than late in the game. Luckily we scored several more goals and got the three points”
” I did not get the ball often in the first 20 minutes but you have to stay patient as a striker. To be honest I never thought I would ever play so many games in the Champions League and score so many goals,” Lewandoski stated after the match.
His Boss at Bayern, Julian Nagelsmann was full of praise noting that Lewandoski is the best striker in the world.
"He should not be reduced to only his goals tonight, but of course he has shown his strength of character and he is always looking to score. He is and will remain for a long time to come the best striker in the world," Julian Nagelsmann stated.