Lewandowski scores a hat trick to extend 'pichichi' lead

At the age of 36 Robert Lewandowski continues to astound the world of football. Against Alavés on Sunday at Mendizorrotza, the Polish strike scored all three goals in Barça's 3-0 win against Alavés to extend his lead as 'pichichi', La Liga's top goalscorer for the season. 

All three of Lewandowski's goals came in the first half, two from assists from Raphinha and one from Eric Garcia. 

The hat-trick in Vitoria against Alavés is the third time that Lewandowski has scored a hat-trick for Barça. In his time with Bayern Munich he did so on 20 occasions and with Borussia Dortmund on four occasions, making a total of 27 at club level for the Pole. 

Early hat-trick 

His three goals in 32 minutes of the game was the quickest hat-trick for Barça since Leo Messi's three goals in half an hour against Mallorca. Further than that, only Tejada's three goals in the opening 28 minutes of a game in 1954 against Real Sociedad and Samuel Eto'o's record of three goals against Almería in 2008 have been quicker. 

Top scorer 

With 10 goals in 9 games in La Liga, Robert Lewandowski leads the chase to be 'pichichi' in 2023/24, four goals ahead of his nearest challenger, Ayoze Pérez of Villarreal.