Gnabry hat-trick and Lewandowski record as Bayern rout Stuttgart 5-0

Berlin (dpa) – Serge Gnabry scored a hat-trick and set up the other two from Robert Lewandowski who equalled another Bundesliga scoring record in Bayern Munich’s 5-0 triumph at VfB Stuttgart on Tuesday.

Lewandowski drew level with late Bayern great Gerd Mueller with 42 league goals in a calendar year and can better the mark in the final game of the year on Friday against Wolfsburg.

The Polish marksman had in summer raised Mueller’s season scoring record from 1971-72 by one to 41.

Gnabry broke the deadlock shortly before half-time with a classy curling shot into the top right corner off Leroy Sane who had come on a few minutes earlier for injured Kingsley Coman.

Stuttgart threatened briefly after the break but Germany forward Gnabry ended their hopes in the 53rd when he took up a Thomas Mueller pass, rounded a defender and calmly slotted into the bottom left corner.

Nine-time reigning campions Bayern weren’t finished yet and added three more in a span of five minutes against the fourth-last hosts.

Lewandowski took his season tally to 18 when he chipped the third in the 69th and slid for the fourth in the 72nd – both off Gnabry – before it was Gnabry’s turn again to tap his ninth of the season and the team’s 52nd in 16 games after Mueller dropped a cross from his Munich namesake.

“He is an outstanding player who has seen a little less playing time than he deserves lately owing to back problems. He did a very good job today,” Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann said in praise of Gnabry.

Looking at Coman, he added: “We don’t have an exact diagnosis for him yet. It’s a muscular issue. We’re hoping that it’s nothing serious.”

Nagelsmann said pre-match that Bayern are “absolutely not” champions yet but they moved nine points ahead of second-placed Borussia Dortmund and secured the unofficial Bundesliga winter title at the season halfway mark a 25th time with one game to spare.

Bayern went on to lift the trophy in 21 of the past 24 seasons they led at the halfway stage. From all past 58 campaigns the midway leader has finished top 39 times.

“We have one more game this year and want to win that as well,” Nagelsmann said looking at the Wolfsburg date.

Wolfsburg travel to Munich with six straight defeat in all competitions after a last-minute 3-2 home defeat against Cologne from Anthony Modeste’s header.

Lukas Nmecha on his 23rd birthday and Wout Weghorst put the hosts ahead twice, but Modeste and Mark Uth levelled for Cologne before Modeste clinched the mid-table duel with his second.

Mainz rose into sixth with a 4-0 demolition of Hertha Berlin, and second-last Arminia Bielefeld defeated Bochum 2-0 for their first home win of the season.

The other five mid-week games are Wednesday, with Dortmund hosting bottom side Fuerth.