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It was, as one German newspaper neatly put it, “Oktoberfest in north London”. Bayern’s festival of attacking football at Tottenham Hotspur on Matchday 2 turned heads across Europe, but perhaps the most surprising aspect was that one player had scored four goals in the 7-2 win – and it wasn’t Robert Lewandowski (pictured above). The prolific Pole would soon put that right.
Whatever they’re serving up at the Bayern canteen this season, it’s working. Serge Gnabry was the club’s star turn at Tottenham, burying his first goal on 53 minutes and completing his hat-trick half an hour later, before adding a bonus effort close to full time. For the former Arsenal winger, it was a night to savour. “North London is RED!!!” joked the 24-year-old on Twitter after notching the first Champions League four-goal haul since 2015, and signposting a surge in personal scoring feats this term.
Hat-tricks, hat-tricks, everywhere. At the time of writing, by the end of Matchday 5, no fewer than seven had been recorded – just two shy of the benchmark for a Champions League season, set in 2016/17. And for the first time in the competition’s history, two players from the same club have now plundered four-goal salvos in the same campaign, with Lewandowski following Gnabry’s example at Crvena zvezda on 26 November, rattling in his quartet of goals in a record 16 minutes.
