Golden Shoe 2017-18: Top Goalscorers in Europe, Latest Points on March 12

Ciro Immobile scored against Cagliari on Sunday to create a five-way tie at the top of the standings in the race for the Golden Shoe. 

He joined Harry Kane, Lionel Messi, Mohamed Salah and Edinson Cavani on 48 points after scoring his 24th Serie A goal of the campaign.

Robert Lewandowski is close behind on 46 points after he bagged a hat-trick in Bayern Munich's 6-0 thrashing of Hamburg.

Here are the standings:

T1. Harry Kane, Tottenham Hotspur: 24 goals x 2.0 difficulty factor = 48.0 points

T1. Mohamed Salah, Liverpool: 24 x 2.0 = 48.0 

T1. Lionel Messi, Barcelona: 24 x 2.0 = 48.0

T1. Edinson Cavani, Paris Saint-Germain: 24 x 2.0 = 48.0 

T1. Ciro Immobile, Lazio: 24 x 2.0 = 48.0

6. Jonas, Benfica: 31 x 1.5 = 46.5

7. Robert Lewandowski, Bayern Munich: 23 x 2.0 = 46.0

7. Sergio Aguero, Manchester City: 21 x 2.0 = 42.0 

T8. Luis Suarez, Barcelona: 21 x 2.0 = 42.0

10. Neymar, Paris Saint-Germain: 19 x 2.0 = 38.0

Rules: Every European leagues has been assigned a difficulty factor between one and two by UEFA, which is multiplied by a player's goals to calculate his points tally.

The continent's top five leagues have a maximum difficulty rating of two, and so goals scored in them are worth two points each, whereas in the Portuguese Primeira Liga, for example, goals are worth just 1.5 points.

Immobile has scored a lot of goals this season—34 in all competitions to be precise, with 24 of those coming in Serie A—but perhaps none are better than his strike against Cagliari.

With his side losing 2-1 in the 95th minute, the Italian pulled off an audacious effort to salvage a point, per football writer Paolo Bandini and beIN Sports' Andy Kerr:

The strike took him past last season's Serie A tally of 23, making it the most prolific league campaign of his top-flight career.

Along with Messi, of the top contenders for the Golden Shoe, Immobile has the most league matches left remaining with 10, while Cavani has nine and Premier League duo Salah and Kane have just eight.

For Kane, much will depend on the severity of the ankle injury he suffered in Tottenham Hotspur's 4-1 win over Bournemouth on Sunday. A scan on Monday should provide a timeline of his recovery, per BBC Sport.

Lewandowski also has eight games to go in the Bundesliga with Bayern, but he put himself in contention on Saturday as he celebrated an impressive milestone:

The Pole headed home Bayern's second after Franck Ribery had opened the scoring, and made it 3-0 when he converted David Alaba's pass.

Arjen Robben and Ribery added further goals before Lewandowski produced a rare miss from the penalty spot late on.

The striker was given another opportunity to score from the spot minutes after, though, and he made no mistake with his second attempt.