Robert Lewandowski's record, Erling Haaland's quadruple and the 5 big moments of 2020/21.
From Bayern Munich superstar Robert Lewandowski breaking the Bundesliga scoring record to Erling Haaland's quadruple for Borussia Dortmund against Hertha Berlin, the 2020/21 top-flight season in Germany served up several moments that took the breath away.
bundesliga.com picks out five instants in the campaign that left everyone open-mouthed in amazement.
1) Lewandowski gets his 41st
He did it, but for very nearly 90 minutes of the final day of the season, it didn't look like it would happen. Robert Lewandowski had equalled Gerd Müller's long-standing record of 40 goals in a single Bundesliga campaign in the Matchday 33 draw with Freiburg. But though Bayern Munich had already hit the net four times against Augsburg, it looked like Markus Weinzierl's plan might be working.
Watch: All of Robert Lewandowski's 41 Bundesliga goals from 2020/21
"Gerd Müller was my idol growing up, and was my assistant coach with the Bayern reserve team," said the Augsburg boss. "I know him well and appreciate him hugely. We must man-mark Lewandowksi to protect Gerd Müller's record."
Weinzierl's men did a great job, but switch off for a second, and Lewandowski will punish you. Don't switch off and he might still punish you, and when Rafal Gikiewicz pushed out Leroy Sane's shot, that's what happened. Poland's prime penalty-box prowler was following up, gambling on getting the opportunity he did get, and the rest…well, that's history.
"I have to say I never dreamt about breaking this record, to score more than 40 goals," Lewandowski told bundesliga.com after playing only his 29th game of the season, which fell - happily - on his mum's birthday. "Because I thought that it’s impossible."
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So Robert, what's next? Give the bloke a break…he's even giving himself one. Kind of.
"I've not yet thought about Gerd Müller's 365 goals," said Lewandowski, who has 277 Bundesliga strikes in his career, but could - at nearly 33 - still threaten his fellow Bayern legend's all-time league-leading stat. "This record is so far away and it's not yet in my mind." Not yet…
2) Moukoko, the youngest ever player and scorer
When Lewandowski first played in the Bundesliga, it was the day after the ex-Borussia Dortmund striker's 22nd birthday.
When Youssoufa Moukoko stepped off the bench to replace Erling Haaland for the final five minutes of Dortmund's 5-2 win over Hertha Berlin on Matchday 8, it was just 24 hours following his 16th birthday. But then-Dortmund coach Lucien Favre underlined the fact Moukoko's appearance was no token gesture, telling media: "It's not a present, his birthday was yesterday."
Watch: Youssoufa Moukoko becomes the youngest scorer in Bundesliga history
Moukoko's arrival in the Bundesliga made him the German top-flight's youngest ever debutant, knocking former Dortmund man Nuri Sahin off top spot: he'd been a month away from his 17th birthday when he made his league debut for BVB against Wolfsburg in August 2005.
"He's the biggest talent in the world right now," said Haaland after the Hertha match. "I am over 20, I am getting old now!"
Moukoko wasn't done there. He became the most-youthful UEFA Champions League debutant ever when he played for BVB against Zenit St. Petersburg in the group stage in December, and then 10 days later carved off another piece of Bundesliga history for himself when he found the net against Union Berlin on Matchday 13 to become - at 16 years and 28 days - the German top-flight's youngest scorer.
He scored twice more before a foot ligament injury cut short his historic 2020/21 campaign, but Haaland fully expects Moukoko to be challenging for a first-team place again next term.
"He is already at one of the top clubs for improving his game," said the former Red Bull Salzburg man recently. "The club gives you a chance to play. It does not matter what age you are."
3) Haaland to the four
Haaland knows something about that having been given the platform to perform at the top level when he joined BVB in January 2020 aged just 19.
In any other season, the Dortmund man's tally of 27 goals in 28 Bundesliga matches this campaign would have seen him take all the plaudits. Haaland can thank Lewandowski for the fact he didn't.
Watch: Haaland takes Hertha apart
But the BVB phenomenon did take some of the early season limelight, and there were shades of Lewandowski's stunning five-goal haul in nine minutes against Wolfsburg when Haaland netted four times in 33 second-half minutes before being replaced by Moukoko at Hertha.
Haaland became the first Dortmund player since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in November 2016 to score four times in a Bundesliga match, and his haul took him on to 23 league goals in just 22 matches, breaking the legendary Uwe Seeler's record of 20 goals in his first 22 Bundesliga appearances.
"If he works more on his abilities, he has a great chance of being the best forward in the world in the future," said Lewandowski, who should know a world-class goalscorer when he sees one. "You can see on his face how hungry he is to score goals."
4) Hope in Hoppe
Drop a letter from his name, and you have what US teenager Matthew Hoppe gave Schalke when he became the club's youngest hat-trick scorer - and the first American ever to hit a treble in the Bundesliga - in the 4-0 Matchday 15 defeat of Hoffenheim.
It ended the Royal Blues' 30-game winless run in handsome fashion, and though the season would still turn ugly as Schalke claimed all three points just twice more in their remaining 19 games and lost their top-flight status, on that day in Gelsenkirchen the clouds cleared for a moment.
Watch: Hoppe's hat-trick against Hoffenheim!
"I can't really describe this feeling. I'm happy, I don't have words for it," said Hoppe, who had found the net just once in 16 matches for the club's reserves in 2020/21.
"He's a very calm and nice young guy, but on the pitch, he gives absolutely everything," said Schalke captain Sead Kolasinac of the California native, who was making just his fifth first-team league appearance, and who has recently been called into the USMNT squad. "You saw how he threw himself into every challenge. We need that."
5) THAT Lazaro 'scorpion kick'
Rene Higuita and Olivier Giroud…add Valentino Lazaro's name in there now: the exclusive Scorpion Kick club has a new member.
Flamboyant Colombia international goalkeeper Higuita didn't score with the outrageous move he brought to the world's attention - in fact, he cleared a goalbound shot instead of simply catching it - in a friendly against England in 1995.
Giroud did, and so did Lazaro - and how! - finding the net in Borussia Mönchengladbach's 4-3 loss at Bayer Leverkusen on Matchday 7.
Watch: Where does Lazaro rank among the Bundesliga's acrobats?
It wasn't quite the sting in the tail the Foals had been hoping for. The Austrian's wonderstrike came four minutes into added time to reduce his team's deficit to one, but it was a fitting way to end a hugely entertaining goalfest at the BayArena.
"I didn't think I would catch it like that," explained Lazaro of his out-of-this-world connection to Patrick Herrmann's cross. "I found a way into the box and saw that the ball was a bit behind me. So I just tried it, and I'm proud."
"I didn't know who, what, where or why," admitted Gladbach boss Marco Rose. "Initially, I thought it was an own-goal. Then I saw it in the dressing-room."
"I don't have a hat on my head," said the man left helpless by Lazaro's moment of magic, Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky. "All I can say is: Nice goal Valentino!"
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