BERLIN: There were eight goals across four Saturday afternoon games in the Bundesliga. Bayern Munich scored seven of them.

There was a familiar face among the goal-scorers, too.

Robert Lewandowski scored yet again in Bayern’s 7-0 rout of promoted Bochum as they provisionally went top.

Lewandowski stretched his scoring run to 19 consecutive games across all competitions for Bayern. The Poland star’s second half goal also ensured he became the first Bundesliga player to score in 13 consecutive home games.

Bayern were already confident after starting the Champions League on Tuesday beating Barcelona 3-0, while Bochum arrived in Munich after two league defeats.

The visitors made a solid start until Leroy Sane opened the scoring with a brilliant free kick in the 17th minute.

Sane set up Joshua Kimmich in the 27th and Serge Gnabry picked the far corner. An own goal from Vasilios Lampropoulos completed a first half to forget for Bochum.

Lewandowski made it 5-0 in the 61st to extend his club-record scoring run. He has scored in every game since Feb 15. Kimmich got his second goal four minutes later and substitute Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting made it 7-0 in the 79th.

“It was a lot of fun for us today, for Bochum not so much,” Bayern midfielder Leon Goretzka said after facing his hometown club. “Of course that makes me a bit sorry personally. We didn’t give Bochum any air to breathe.”

Elsewhere, Florian Niederlechner’s late goal gave Augsburg a 1-0 victory over Borussia Moenchengladbach — the home team’s first league win of the season.

Mainz drew with Freiburg 0-0 and it also ended scoreless between Arminia Bielefeld and Hoffenheim.

Three days after their 6-3 mauling at Manchester City in the Champions League, RB Leipzig were made to work for a 1-1 draw at Cologne in a helter-skelter late game.

Anthony Modeste gave Cologne a second-half lead after he and team-mate Mark Uth both had efforts ruled offside.

The VAR also spotted an offside when Leipzig playmaker Emil Forsberg put the ball in the net before Malian midfielder Amadou Haidara headed the visitors level.

Leipzig have now taken just four points from a possible 15 from their first five league games under new head coach Jesse Marsch.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2021