Serge Gnabry joins a select group of players to score 4 or more goals in a Champions League game
Bayern Munich's Serge Gnabry scored four goals on matchday 2 of the 2019-20 UEFA Champions League against Tottenham Hotspur. In the process, the German midfielder became the 93rd different player, and the third this season, to score a hat-trick in the competition.
In providing the 127th hat-trick in the Champions League, Gnabry became the fourth player from Germany to do so. His four-goal haul was the 8th hat-trick recorded in the Champions League by a Bayern Munich player. Only Barcelona (13) and Real Madrid (11) have registered more hat-tricks in the Champions League than the Bavarian giants.
The 24-year-old's first four goals in the competition marked the first instance of a four-goal hat-trick scored in the second half of a Champions League game.
Here is a brief profile of the select group of players to score 4 or more goals in a Champions League game:
#1 Marco van Basten (Netherlands)
The prolific Dutchman was a star striker of AC Milan's dream team of the late eighties and early nineties. Marco van Basten scored all 4 goals in Milan's 4-0 win over Swedish side IFK Göteborg in the inaugural edition of the Champions League in 1992-93. It was the third hat-trick in the competition and the first by a Milan player.
Van Basten is one of 9 players to have scored a Champions League hat-trick on his competition debut and remains the only player to score 4 goals in his first Champions League game.
#2 Simone Inzaghi (Italy)
It would be seven more years before the next four-goal haul in a Champions League game, and it came about when Simone Inzaghi scored four in Lazio's 5-1 win over Marseille in the group stages of the 1999-2000 edition of the competition.
It was the 21st hat-trick in the Champions League as Lazio became the 3rd Italian club (AC Milan and Juventus being the others) and the 16th different club to register a hat-trick in the competition.
#3 Dado Pršo (Croatia)
Dado Pršo provided the 39th hat-trick of the Champions League when the Croatian forward netted four goals in Deportivo La Coruna's 8-3 win over Monaco in a group game of the 2003-04 edition of the competition.
In the process, Pršo became the 35th different player and the first from Croatia to net a Champions League hat-trick as Deportivo became the 24th different club and the fourth from Spain (Real Madrid, Valencia, and Barcelona being the others) to register a hat-trick in the competition.
#4 Ruud van Nistelrooy (Netherlands)
Ruud van Nistelrooy became the second Dutchman after Roy Makaay to score multiple hat-tricks in the Champions League when he scored all four goals for Manchester United in a 4-1 win over Sparta Praha in a 2004-05 group-game of the competition.
It was the 43rd hat-trick in the competition and was the sixth instance of a player from Netherlands (Juul Ellerman-1, Marco van Basten-1, Roy Makaay-2, van Nistelrooy-2) scoring three or more goals in a Champions League game.
#5 Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine)
Andriy Shevchenko became the second AC Milan player (also Marco van Basten) to net a four-goal hat-trick in the Champions League when he scored all four goals in the Rossoneri's 4-0 win over Turkish side Fenerbahçe in a group game in 2005-06.
It was the 51st hat-trick in the Champions League, and the second for Shevchenko, as the Ukrainian marksman emulated Filippo Inzaghi, Roy Makaay, and Ruud van Nistelrooy by registering multiple hat-tricks in the competition.
#6 Lionel Messi (Argentina)
The diminutive Argentinian's first of a record-equalling eight hat-tricks in the Champions League was a four-goal one when he netted all four goals in Barcelona's 4-1 win over Arsenal in the second leg of the 2009-10 quarterfinals.
It was the 63rd hat-trick in the competition as Lionel Messi became the 53rd different player overall and the first Argentins since Claudio López (Lazio) in 2000-01 to score a Champions League hat-trick.
Messi became the first player in the Champions League to score four goals in a game on multiple occasions when he scored five goals in Barcelona's 7-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen in 2011-12. It was the first instance of any player scoring five goals in a Champions League game.
The Argentina captain would go on to register two more four-goal hauls in the competition by netting all 4 goals in Barcelona's 4-0 win over Ajax in 2013-14 and in the Spanish club's 4-0 win over APOEL in 2014-15.
#7 Bafétimbi Gomis (France)
Bafétimbi Gomis scored the 73rd hat-trick of the Champions League when he scored four goals for Olympique Lyonnais in a 7-1 win over Dinamo Zagreb in 2011-12.
In the process, Gomis became the 60th different player to score three or more goals in a Champions League game and the sixth Frenchman to do so (also Franck Sauzée, Thierry Henry, Sylvian Wiltord, André-Pierre Gignac, and Karim Benzema).
Gomis's four-goal haul made Olympique Lyonnais the 36th different club, and the third from Ligue 1 (also Marseille and Monaco) to register a Champions League hat-trick.