MUNICH: Robert Lewandowski has surpassed a record held by the great Gerd Muller after becoming the first player to score 21 goals in the first 16 rounds of a Bundesliga campaign.

Old Bayern hero Müller took 18 games to reach that figure in the 1969-70 and 1972-73 seasons.

This Sunday, on matchday 16 of the 2020-21 Bundesliga, Lewandowski – winner of FIFA’s best world player award – converted an assist from Thomas Müller to score Bayern’s first goal in a 2-1 win over against Freiburg.

Lewandowski is the league’s top scorer followed by Erling Haaland of Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt’s Portuguese striker  André Silva, both with 12 goals.

The Pole has been proclaimed ‘top scorer’ in the Bundesliga on five occasions in 2013-14, 2015-16, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20.

Lewandowski, who joined Bayern in 2014 from Borussia Dortmund, bid to win the Club World Cup in February in Qatar after having won fivetitles in 2019-20: Bundesliga , German Cup, Champions League, German Super Cup and European Super Cup.

Messi sent off in Super Cup defeat

Athletic Bilbao won the Spanish Super Cup by defeating Barcelona 3-2 after extra time. Barcelona captain Lionel Messi was sent off in extra time for retaliation – the first red card of his Barcelona career. He has been sent off twice playing for Argentina.

The Argentinian was pulled up by VAR for lashing out at Asier Villalibre in the final minutes of the additional 30, after Inaki Williams had netted the decisive goal in the fourth.

Antoine Griezmann had opened the scoring for Barcelona in the 40th minute, slotting past Bilbao goalkeeper Unai Simon to give his side the lead, only for Oscar De Marcos to find the leveller just two minutes later.

Barca looked to have secured victory when Griezmann turned home his second goal of the game from seven yards out in the 77th minute, but Bilbao substitute Villalibre volleyed in a 90th-minute equaliser.

Williams curled the ball into the top corner to put Bilbao ahead for the first time in the game, before things went from bad to worse for Ronald Koeman’s side as Messi saw red.

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