Long after most of his team-mates had left the Allianz Arena, Robert Lewandowski provided information on his next goalscoring record. In the narrow 2-1 home win against Union Berlin, the FC Bayern striker set a new record in the 57-year history of the Bundesliga on Saturday afternoon: He is the first player to score on each of the first nine matchdays. Lewandowski played a big part in ensuring the record champions picked up three points after two games without a win.
"Of course, I'm happy about the record but I'm focused on my game and training," said the 31-year-old who has netted 13 goals in the league. He has now scored 19 goals in three competitions and Lewandowski has scored in every competitive match for the Reds with the exception of the Super Cup. "I don't think about how many goals I've scored but instead of think of how we can earn the next three points. That's what I'm thinking about," said the Pole modestly. "I'm happy we've won today."
Lewandowski was not on his own with that assessment. "I'm happy with the result with us winning 2-1," said Niko Kovač after the final whistle. "Union defended extremely well and they made it difficult for us," added the Bayern coach before declaring: "We can do better. There are always tight games where we only have a one-goal lead. So I can't be relaxed about the game. We have to improve."
"We have to stick at it, we have to be ambitious, we have to want to score goals."
Bayern coach Niko Kovač
With 66% possession, 57% successful challenges and 20 shots on goal compared with six against, the stats are clearly on the side of the hosts who are back on top of the table at least until Sunday. The fact that after the two goals scored by Benjamin Pavard (13') and Lewandowski (53') "it was tight again at the end," as the skipper Manuel Neuer noted was due above all to a large number of missed chances.
"We really should have won today's game by three or four goals," said Kovač who was confident that "at some point not just two shots would go in but perhaps four, five or six – and then everything looks good again. We have to stick at it, we have to be ambitious, we have to want to score goals." The visitors scored through a penalty from Sebastian Polter on 86 minutes after Neuer had earlier saved a penalty from Sebastian Andersson on 58 minutes.
"Basically, we've taken a step in the right direction even if we weren't outstanding," said a satisfied captain. "It wasn't an easy game," said Thomas Müller who did take "lots of positives" from a "decent match". "We achieved our target of waking up this morning top of the table. Now we have to take that forward game by game so that we can regain our calm confidence. I think we'll manage that."
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