Bayern Munich's David Alaba believes that Robert Lewandowski deserves to be mentioned in the same bracket as multiple Ballon d'Or winners Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo after the Poland international shone yet again in the German side's 3-0 victory over Chelsea in the Champions League.
Lewandowski scored one and laid on two assists for Serge Gnabry at Stamford Bridge to give Frank Lampard's Blues the near impossible task of overturning a humbling first-leg deficit, the striker matching a record set by Ronaldo in the process.
And with the 31-year-old now boasting a return of 11 goals in just seven Champions League matches this term, Alaba feels Lewandowski should be counted amongst some of football's greatest to ever play the game.
“Yes, I think so,” the Austrian said of whether his team-mate can be compared to Messi and Ronaldo.
“He's a world-class player and a world-class striker. We all know that he can score goals and he showed another side of himself today by giving assists. We know that he is very important to us and we're grateful to have him in our squad.
“He shows it every weekend – he's one of the best and maybe the best striker in the world. He scores goals in almost every game and, of course, I think he deserves to be at the top and spoken about with those guys.”
Asked if it's the Pole's time to win the Ballon d'Or, Alaba added: “I hope so, he deserves it. I see how hard he works every day. He would deserve it.”
With Chelsea having been condemned to their worst margin of defeat at home in their history, Bayern could be forgiven for thinking that they have one foot already in the quarter-finals, but the defender made it clear that there is still plenty of work to do.
“That's not how we think,” Alaba added. “There's a second game and we still have to play that second game. We did very well in the first game, we know that, but anything can happen in football.
“We have to believe in ourselves but there's still a long way until the final. We have another game against Chelsea and we have to win to get through. We'll see. We go from game to game.”