10 players who have scored a hat-trick on their UEFA Champions League debut
The 2021-22 UEFA Champions League kicked off with a riveting round of Matchday 1 fixtures.
Among the notable results, Manchester United stumbled to a reverse at Young Boys, and Barcelona lost at home to Bayern Munich. Elsewhere, defending champions Chelsea, Manchester City, Juventus and Real Madrid opened their campaigns with wins.
There were a few noteworthy individual performances during the gameweek. Sebastien Haller and Christopher Nkunku impressed by scoring hat-tricks, the former doing so on his competition debut.
In the three-decade-old history of the Champions League, 104 different players have scored hat-tricks in the competition. However, only ten of them have done so on their Champions League debut. So without further ado, let's have a look at the ten players:
#10 Sebastien Haller (Ajax) - 2021-22
Sebastien Haller made his Champions League debut an occasion to remember, as the 27-year-old scored four goals in Ajax's 5-1 win at Sporting Lisbon.
The Cote d'Ivoire forward joined legendary Dutch striker Marco van Basten as the only player to score a quadruple in their first Champions League game.
Only two players in Champions League history have scored four goals on their UCL debut:
◉ Marco van Basten (1992)
◉ Sébastien Haller (2021)
INCREDIBLE. #UCL https://t.co/CP2y9jt3Cx
Haller set the ball rolling as early as the second minute before doubling Ajax's advantage just nine minutes into the night. He scored the third six minutes into the second half, becoming the tenth player to score a hat-trick on his Champions League debut.
Not content with that, Haller scored another 12 minutes later to help the former winners open their campaign with a resounding win on the road.
#9 Mislav Orsic (Dinamo Zagreb) - 2019-20
Mislav Orsic scored three times against tournament debutants Atalanta in a 4-0 home win for Dinamo Zagreb in the 2019-20 Champions League.
Orsic's goals made Croatia the 17th different nation and Dinamo Zagreb the 47th different club to register a hat-trick in the Champions League. The midfielder scored twice in the first half before completing his hat-trick midway through the second.
Mislav Oršić is the first Dinamo Zagreb player to score a Champions League hat-trick in the #UCL era.
⚽️ 31'
⚽️ 42'
⚽️ 68'
History has been made. https://t.co/XCZNJPayNj
Orsic recently scored another European hat-trick, scoring three past Tottenham Hotspur in last season's Europa League. That made the 28-year-old only the second player to score a European hat-trick against Spurs.
#8 Erling Haaland (Salzburg) - 2019-20
Erling Haaland took to the Champions League like a fish to water when the then 19-year-old scored thrice in Salzburg's 6-2 win over Genk.
That made Haaland (19 years, 58 days) the third-youngest player to score a Champions League hat-trick. Only Real Madrid legend Raul (18 years 113 days) and Wayne Rooney (18 years 340 days) were younger than the Norwegian when they scored thrice on their Champions League debut.
Haaland is the third Norwegian player to net a Champions League hat-trick. The teenager's three-goal haul made Salzburg the 46th different club and the first from Austria to register a hat-trick in a Champions League game.
Now at Borussia Dortmund, Haaland is already up to 20 goals in the competition, becoming the youngest and quickest player to reach the landmark.
🇳🇴 Erling Haaland in the Champions League:
🤯 Youngest player in history to score 20 goals
🔝 Fewest appearances to reach 20 goals
🎩 1st player to score hat-trick on his debut since 2004
⚽️Scored against every club he's faced
🔥 20 goals in 14 games in this competition
#UCL https://t.co/cKAuakiojK
Haaland has scored ten goals in each of his last two campaigns in the competition. He opened his account for the season by scoring in Dortmund's 3-2 win over Besiktas on Wednesday.
#7 Yacine Brahimi (Porto) - 2014-15
Yacine Brahimi provided the 91st hat-trick of the Champions League when he scored three goals for Porto against BATE Borisov in 2014-15. That made Brahimi the first Algerian player and Porto the 42nd different club to score a hat-trick in the competition.
Yacine Brahimi is the FIRST Porto player to score a hat-trick in UEFA Champions League history
He scored twice inside the opening 32 minutes. Brahimi then completed his hat-trick 12 minutes into the second half as Porto won 6-0 on the night.
In the process, the 24-year-old Algerian became the youngest African player after Nigeria's Yakubu (19 years) to score three goals in a Champions League game. Incidentally, Brahimi's hat-trick was the first by a Champions League debutant in five years.
In 34 subsequent games in the competition since his hat-trick, the winger has scored only five more times though.