Champions: Benzema’s two consecutive hat-tricks, like Messi and Ronaldo

It is the Champions of Karim Benzema. After the hat-trick to PSG which earned Real the comeback in the second leg of the second round, the Franco-Algerian granted an encore in the first leg of the quarterfinals at Chelsea. Two truly incredible three of a kind in a row. An undertaking but not unprecedented. Although the two who succeeded before him are called Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, hence the crème de la crème, and they arrived in different circumstances.

leo and cr7

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Both previous ones date back to the 2016-17 edition and in a certain sense have the asterisk compared to Benzema’s masterpieces. La Pulce did it in Barcelona’s debut match in the group stage against Celtic Glasgow, beaten 7-0. The encore after missing the second with Borussia Mönchengladbach: 3 goals against Manchester City in the third round, again at Camp Nou. Ronaldo instead scored 3 times in the quarterfinal return to the Bernabeu for Real against Bayern, but two goals came in extra time. The encore in the first leg of the semifinals in the derby with Atletico. In short, if we want Benzema’s double hat-trick is worth even more. The first was achieved at the Bernabeu when the Blancos seemed doomed after Mbappé’s goal, the second at Stamford Bridge, a masterpiece that in fact seems to have marked this quarter-final. Karim is also the first to score three goals against Chelsea in a single game and the first since 2003 to score a hat-trick at an English side. Before him, Ronaldo had succeeded, not CR7 but the Phenomenon, again with Real, at Manchester United in 2003. He is also the first Frenchman to reach 11 goals in a Champions League edition.

luiz adriano

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The absolute record for the highest number of goals in two consecutive Champions League matches, however, belongs to Luiz Adriano, who in 2014/15, with the shirt of Shakhtar Donetsk, scored even eight (3 however from a penalty) at Bate Borisov: five in 7 -0 outside the first leg of the group stage, and another 3 in the return leg, which ended 5-0. The seasonal record of hat-tricks is instead of Ronaldo, who scored 3 in 2015-16. If, on the other hand, we look at the career, at the top we find the same CR7 paired with Messi with 8, followed by Lewandowski with 5. In total, 93 players in the history of the Champions League have achieved at least one hat-trick.

The fastest was that of Bafétimbi Gomis in Dinamo Zagreb-Lyon 1-7 in December 2011, arriving in just 8 ‘. If with that at Chelsea, Benzema became the oldest “tripletist” at 34 years and 108 days, the youngest is Raul González, 18 years and 114 days when he succeeded in the feat with the Real Madrid shirt in 6-1 at Ferencváros on October 18, 1995.

The first in the history of the Champions League (therefore not the Champions Cup but with the current format) is of a legend, Marco Van Basten, in Milan-Goteborg 4-0 on 25 November 1992.