10 players who have scored a hat-trick on their UEFA Champions League debut

#3 Yakubu (Maccabi Haifa) - 2002-03

Yakubu at Reading. He scored for Macabi Haifa on his UCL debut in 2002-03

Yakubu scored a hat-trick on his Champions League debut in 2002-03. The Nigerian striker scored thrice for Maccabi Haifa in their 3-0 home win over Olympiacos in a group game. In the process, the Nigerian became the fourth teenager to score a Champions League hat-trick.

It was the 33rd hat-trick in the competition and the first by an African player. Maccabi Haifa became the first club from Israel to register a Champions League hat-trick.

Incidentally, Yakubu scored only two more times in the competition, all for Maccabi Haifa.

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#2 Faustino Asprilla (Newcastle United) - 1997-98

Faustion Asprilla during Parma's 100th anniversary match.

Faustino Asprilla provided the 12th hat-trick of the Champions League. He scored thrice in Newcastle United's 3-2 home win over Barcelona in a 1997-98 group game.

The goals made Asprilla the first South American since Romario to score thrice in a Champions League game. In the process, Newcastle became the second English club, tenth overall, to score a Champions League hat-trick.

Asprilla and Andriy Shevchenko (also in 1997-98) were the only players to score a Champions League hat-trick against Barcelona. This is before Kylian Mbappe joined them almost two decades later.

Those three goals would be Asprilla's only strikes in the Champions League, as he went scoreless in four other games in the competition.

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#1 Marco van Basten (AC Milan) - 1992-93

Marco van Basten (Pic source: skysports)

AC Milan legend Marco van Basten was the first player to score a hat-trick on his Champions League debut. He provided the third-ever hat-trick in the Champions League when he netted all four goals in Milan's 4-0 win over IFK Göteborg in a 1992-93 group game.

For almost three decades, the legendary Dutch striker remained the only player to score four times in their first Champions League game. That was until Sebastien Haller joined him by scoring a quadruple against Sporting Lisbon on the first matchday of the 2021-22 season.

With his quadruple, Van Basten joined compatriot Juul Ellerman as the only Dutchman to score three goals in a game in the competition. Ellerman was the scorer of the first Champions League hat-trick. Thanks to Van Basten's strikes, Milan beat Gotheborg 4-0 at home in the first-ever Champions League season.

It would be seven more seasons before another player - Simone Inzaghi - would score four times in a Champions League game.