Robert Lewandowski hat-trick fires Bayern Munich past RB Salzburg in Champions League

Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski has spearheaded his club's 7-1 win over Austrian champions RB Salzburg, scoring a 12-minute hat-trick in the first half as it eased through to the Champions League quarter final.

It was the best possible response to their rusty performance in the first leg in February, which required a Kingsley Coman equaliser in stoppage time to salvage a 1-1 draw.

The outspoken Poland international, who led calls last week for football to boycott Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, opened the scoring through a 12th-minute penalty after being clumsily brought down in the box by Salzburg defender Maximilian Wober.

The centre-back was at fault again in the 19th minute, with VAR confirming yet another penalty that Lewandowski slotted home. The Pole completed his hat-trick two minutes later, chasing a Thomas Muller through-ball that Salzburg goalkeeper Kohn bundled right into Lewandowski's path, deflecting it onto the post before a simple tap-in to make it 3-0.

It is the Munich forward's fifth hat-trick in the Champions League, and the earliest that the competition has ever seen.

The tie was all but over by the half-hour mark when Serge Gnabry fizzed a low shot past Kohn for 4-0, while Muller got on the scoresheet early in the second half, pirouetting in the box before drilling home Bayern's fifth goal in the 54th minute.

Salzburg teenager Maurits Kjaergaard pulled a goal back in the 70th minute, but it did nothing to slow down the German giants, who slotted two more past Kohn through Muller and Leroy Sane in the game's closing stages.

Bayern has now scored seven or more goals in Europe's most prestigious club competition for a record seventh time.

Despite its dominance though — including 70 per cent