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The Champions League is about to reach its climax for the 2022/23 season with the final in Istanbul between Man City and Inter nearly upon us. This tournament has provided the fans of the beautiful game with countless memorable moments over the years. Below we look at the fastest Champions League hat trick in history.
Robert Lewandowski holds the record for the earliest hat trick in the Champions League
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23 – Robert Lewandowski has completed a hat-trick within 23 minutes against FC RB Salzburg tonight; the earliest treble ever scored by a player in UEFA Champions League history from the start of a match, overtaking Marco Simone for Milan v Rosenborg in 1996 (24 mins). Snappy. pic.twitter.com/aVNNmGdgVV
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 8, 2022
In March 2022 Robert Lewandowski led his Bayern Munich team to a 7-1 win against RB Salzburg with the Pole creating a piece of history on that day. Lewandowski scored a hat-trick inside the opening 23 minutes of the match making him the player with the fastest hat-trick by any player in the Champions League from the start of the match to his third goal. With this achievement, Lewandowski broke a 26-year-old record held by Marco Simone who got a hat-trick inside the opening 24 minutes of Milan’s match vs Rosenborg in 1996.
Lewandowski achieved his historic hat trick in only 10 minutes and 22 seconds. One could be forgiven to think this is probably the quickest hat trick in the Champions League history too. But this is far from true. This feat from Lewandowski ranks only 6th in the all-time list of the fastest hat tricks in terms of time between the first and the third goal.
Just last year Mo Salah scored the quickest hat trick in Champions League history
6 – Mo Salah has scored a hat-trick with just six minutes and 12 seconds between his first and third goals, the quickest ever in UEFA Champions League history. Lightning. pic.twitter.com/cuZ2YquoiF
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 12, 2022
It was in the same year 2022 when Mo Salah from Liverpool broke the record for the quickest hat-trick in Champions League history during his team’s 7-1 win vs Rangers. Salah came off the bench in this match in the 68th minute scored his first goal in the 75th and only 6 minutes and 12 seconds later he was celebrating his third goal of the game.
With this Salah replaced Bafetimbi Gomis from Lyon as the player to score the quickest hat-trick in Champions League history. Gomis scored his hat trick in 2011 in 8 minutes and 45 seconds.
Interestingly the 3rd quickest hat trick in the Champions League belongs to a surprising player. In 1995 Blackburn’s Mike Newell needed 9 minutes and 27 seconds to score a hat trick against Rosenborg. No other player in the history of the Champions League has scored a hat-trick for less than 10 minutes, putting Newell in a very small and elite group of just 3 players of all the thousands that have played in the competition over the years.
The players with the most hat tricks in the Champions League
Finally, we look at the most consistent players in terms of hat-tricks recorded in the Champions League. Surprise, surprise the two players with the most hat tricks in the history of the competition are none other but arguably the two greatest players to ever play in the Champions League. Both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have achieved 8 hat tricks each during their glory runs in the competition.
Third on the list for most hat-tricks is expectedly the sharpest shooter of them all Robert Lewandowski with 6 to his name. No other player has more than 4 Champions League hat tricks.
Could Erling Haaland threaten any of these records in Istanbul? Man City‘s goal machine already has 2 Champions League hat-tricks to his name despite his young age. Is he ready to shine again in the biggest game of his career so far? We can’t wait to see what drama will transpire in Turkey this Saturday.
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