Why we will see Bayern’s Lewandowski make history this Saturday
The stage is set for Bayern Munich ace Robert Lewandowski to make history this Saturday. With the league title already decided, the 32-year-old Polish ace needs just one goal to break Gerd Muller’s 49-year-old record, and one would be quite unwise to bet against him achieving that. Lewandowski is now on 40 goals after netting during Bayern’s two-all draw with Freiburg, and with his team set to take on an Augsburg side who have won just one of their last five games, but are already safe for next season, Lewandowski can certainly relax and enjoy his football this weekend.
Of course, Gerd Muller, nicknamed Der Bomber, publicly will say that he has “no problem” with anyone breaking his record, but one can certainly bet that he’s not totally thrilled with the prospect with seeing it finally fall. After all, no one likes being eclipsed, and when he set that milestone nearly a half a century ago, he would have hoped that during his lifetime it would have stood. Realistically, he definitely knew that at some point, someone would come along and break it, but who knows – maybe he’d hope that maybe it would have happened later. Or maybe he just may be happy to see it be another Bayern player and not someone playing for another team.
Meanwhile, Augsburg have claimed they’re “going to do everything possible” to stop Lewandowski from scoring on Saturday. Well, best of luck to them. Lewandowski has been the Bundesliga’s top goal-scorer in six of the last eight years, and Augusburg, as noted before, have won just one of their last five games. Bayern are playing their last matchday at home. Furthermore, the visitors are winless in their last 11 meetings with Bayern, with losses in nine of those games, albeit current manager Markus Weinzierl was the man in charge when Augsburg earned their last win – which happened in Munich back on March 9, 2015.
With Lewandowski having scored 20 times in just 16 appearances against Augsburg, will he break Muller’s single season’s record on Saturday? It’s hard to imagine how he won’t. Last season saw him scored 55 times in 47 appearances across all comps, which was better than Muller’s 50 in 48. That was even more impressive considering he missed several games due to injury and suspension, and he still won his third consecutive Torjägerkanone trophy. Only Muller had managed to win three in a row previously, and this season, Lewandowski will go one better and win a fourth on the trot.
Despite missing five – yes five games – this season, he’s already racked up 40 goals, and in fact, he’d have more if he hadn’t been so unselfish and decided to chip in with an assist for Kingsley Coman during Bayern’s 6-0 demolition of Gladbach. But selfishness has never been the Polish star’s nature – an unusual trait for a no. 9, that’s for sure. On Saturday, though, one can be certainly sure that everyone will be pitching in to make sure that Lewandowski does score a goal and so his teammates will be encouraging him to be a bit more selfish as all want to see him make that bit of history at the Allianz Arena.
And despite what Augsburg may say in public about “doing all they can to stop him”, one can certainly bet that they wouldn’t begrudge him breaking that historic record, either – even if it does have to ultimately come at their expense.
