Even before the start of the new season, many fans and experts from Spain questioned Robert Lewandowski's value at FC Barcelona. The Pole was criticized primarily for his huge earnings and inconsistent goalscoring form. Meanwhile, our striker has been proving since the very first round that despite being 36 years old, he is still one of the best strikers in the world.
Robert Lewandowski catches up with Messi. What a feat!
“One of the keys was getting Lewandowski back. It should not be forgotten that Xavi wanted to throw the Pole out of the team. Flick acted cautiously. He knew him very well from his work at Bayern Munich. He restored his self-confidence and put him in a position where he feels best. He is a finisher and needs to get good balls. And when that happens, he does not forgive” – Spanish media recently wrote about Lewandowski's disposition.
In the first series of games, the captain of Michał Probierz's team saved three points for the team, scoring two goals in an away match with Valencia (2:1). Then he scored the winning goal in the match with Athletic Bilbao (2:1). In the match with Rayo Vallecano (2:1) he also scored, but the referee saw a foul and disallowed the goal. However, Hansi Flick's team had a real party in the last match against Real Valladolid. Barcelona won 7:0, and Robert Lewandowski was the author of one goal and one assist.
Adding up all the goals, the 36-year-old has four after four rounds. According to the Opta statistical platform, the last Barcelona player to score four times in the first four rounds of La Liga games was… Lionel Messi! The legendary Argentine did it in the opening matches of the 2018/2019 season. At that time, he scored two doubles – in the first match against Deportivo Alaves (3:0) and in the fourth, when the Catalans played against Huesca (8:2).
In that campaign, Messi scored a total of 36 goals in 34 matches. Let's hope that after such a strong start, Lewandowski will try to get close to that number. Currently, however, he has matches in the Nations League, where the Polish national team will play against Scotland and Croatia.