What an evening for Serge Gnabry! The FC Bayern attacker turned up the heat at his old clubäs ground on Tuesday evening. The winger was a huge part of Bayern's 5-0 win over VfB Stuttgart. Gnabry equalled his career-best against the club he played for as a youth: he was directly involved in all five goals!
"There have definitely been worse games. Of course it feels extremely good that we played so well and won by so much. It was a great day," said Gnabry after the match, in a game in which he was in the starting eleven for the first time in almost four weeks. "I set myself a lot of targets after not so much playing time of time. I was motivated, but I wouldn't have dared to dream that I'd have a game like this."
Gnabry had previously only managed an incredible five goal contributions in FCB's devastating 7-2 away win over Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League in October 2019 - the arch-rivals of Gnabry's other adopted home at Arsenal. With a total of eight shots on goal against Stuttgart, Gnabry equalled a new Bundesliga record for the season, alongside Robert Lewandowski (also against VfB on Tuesday night).
Serge Gnabry broke the deadlock in the 40th minute with a beautiful curling finish.
Five minutes before the break, Gnabry delivered for Bayern, scoring the all-important opener. In the 53rd minute, the 26-year-old scored his second, all but securing the win. But Gnabry and Bayern were not finished yet! In the space of five minutes, the Germany international set up Lewandowski twice (69', 72') and then scored his third goal in the 74th minute.
Special praise from the head coach
Head coach Julian Nagelsmann also had praise for Gnabry's superb performance. "He scored an outstanding goal in the first half. His two assists were also excellent," the boss said at the post-match press conference. "He is an outstanding player and did very well today." On Friday, Gnabry has the chance to consolidate his performance, in the last match of 2021, against VfL Wolfsburg at the Allianz Arena.
Robert Lewandowski scored his 42nd Bundesliga goal of 2021 in Stuttgart, equalling Gerd Müller's record:
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