Football
Stephan Uersfeld, Germany correspondent 8y

Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski 'hungry for goals' vs. Benfica

Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski has said he and his teammates are "hungry for goals" ahead of their trip to Benfica in the Champions League.

Last Tuesday, Bayern recorded a 1-0 win against Benfica in the first leg of their quarterfinal at the Allianz Arena in Germany.

Despite Arturo Vidal's early goal, the Bavarian's rarely got into dangerous positions in the final third and recorded just five shots on target, three of them in the first half.

Only one of the five attempts came from forward Robert Lewandowski, 27, who has not scored for Bayern in three consecutive matches in April.

Following the Bavarians' 3-1 win at Stuttgart last Saturday, Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge backed the Poland international to be on target at Benfica on Wednesday, and Lewandowski told Bild: "I am hungry for goals. We want to at least score one goal."

A goal would put Bayern in a comfortable position as Benfica, who will be without their star forward Jonas, would then need three goals to progress to the semifinals of the Champions League.

Lewandowski hopes a breakthrough for the visitors could open up the Portuguese side's defence. He said: "More than one goal would be ideal. We'd able to play calmer after that. And score even more goals."

Just like coach Pep Guardiola, who told his prematch news conference that Bayern "know them better now," Lewandowski said the first leg was also a way of getting to know Benfica.

"We now know what we can do better," he said, and urged his team to get behind the first defending line.

"Benfica has a very strong defence. They want to keep us away from the goal. We need to play better balls between the defenders, find free spaces. In those spaces we need more possession to create chances and score more goals."

Guardiola will have most of his players available for selection. Apart from Jerome Boateng, Arjen Robben and Holger Badstuber, the remainder of the squad is fit to take to the field at the Estadio da Luz, although Moroccan defender Mehdi Benatia was not on board the flight to Lisbon on Tuesday.

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