As recently as last summer, Bayern Munich were still publicly looking for a successor to Arjen Robben
The Netherlands legend won every trophy possible with the Bavarians, playing over 300 games in 10 seasons in Munich.
Serge Gnabry had started ahead of Robben under Niko Kovac in 2018-19, yet Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was giving interviews claiming he believed Manchester City’s Leroy Sane “would be the successor of Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery.”
Sane finally signed for Bayern this summer, but while he was watching from the sidelines in Manchester over the course of the 2019-20 campaign, Gnabry was busy becoming the rightful heir to Robben.
On Wednesday night in Lisbon, he solidified his claim, opening the scoring with a goal straight out of the Dutchman’s playbook, cutting in from the right before unleashing an unstoppable shot with his left foot.
Despite Lyon having lots of opportunities in the Bayern area thanks to their ability to bypass the high defensive line, the Ligue 1 outfit were 2-0 down by the 33rd minute as Gnabry got his name on the scoresheet once more.
Robert Lewandowski went into the game leading this year’s Champions League top scorer race with 14 goals, but scuffed a brilliant chance for another, allowing Gnabry to react fastest to ensure the ball crossed the line.
Having scored four goals in London against Tottenham in the group stage, Gnabry took his own European tally to nine in 2019-20, the highest by an active player in the competition behind Lewandowski, who did get his goal with a late header from Joshua Kimmich’s cross.
In fact, Gnabry and Lewandowski’s combined 24 goals has seen them beat the record previously set by Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale in 2013-14 for the most prolific pairing in a single Champions League season. Continue reading