Euro-Star: Barcelona hat-trick hero Lewandowski maintains Pichichi quest

 

Euro-Star returns to take a look at the top performing player to impress outside of the Premier League this weekend. We run through the best rated performers in England's top tier in the team of the week write up, so now is the time to give those plying their trade away from these shores a chance for the limelight. 

 

As always, we let our X followers determine who is the focus this week of the four players to have put in the best rated performance across the continent. This time around, Robert Lewandowski, Paul Onuachu, Elbasan Rashani and Kevin Stoger were in contention, with the former (44.6%) claiming the higher share of the vote. Onuachu ran the Pole close, claiming 41.9%. 

 

 

The opening 45 to Barcelona's Monday night didn't quite go according to plan. Indeed, they found themselves 2-1 down heading into the break against Valencia to round off the La Liga game week. Fermin Lopez had opened the scoring for the Blaugrana, only for Hugo Duro and Pepelu to respond for Los Che. 

 

However, Valencia's night took a turn for the worse when Giorgi Mamardashvili received his marching orders on the stroke of half time due to handball. While Barcelona looked as though they were on the beach for much of the first half, they capitalised upon their numerical advantage to punish Ruben Baraja's men. 

 

Backup shotstopper Jaume Domenech was powerless to deny Barcelona in the second half as Xavi's men prolonged Real Madrid's title celebrations for a little while longer. Lewandowski endured a subdued opening 45 minutes but was one to really benefit from Mamardashvili's dismissal. 

 

It hasn't been the best season for Lewandowski, who was mired on a four-game goalless run ahead of Monday's welcome of Valencia. Yet he punished Baraja's side, mustering five shots and netting a second half hat-trick to maintain his quest for the Pichichi award as he bagged his 14th, 15th and 16th league goals of the season in an eventual 4-2 win.

 

With a Champions League spot all-but sealed with five games to play, Barcelona have nothing else to play for. However, Lewandowski has the chance to secure another top scorer award in the final weeks of the campaign and having returned a WhoScored.com rating of 9.89 against a 10-man Valencia side, it's clear that the Poland international will seek to secure another personal accolade and build consistency ahead of the Euros.

Euro-Star: Barcelona hat-trick hero Lewandowski maintains Pichichi quest