Serge Gnabry joins a select group of players to score 4 or more goals in a Champions League game

Bhargav
Serge Gnabry
Serge Gnabry

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)

Marco Van Basten
Marco Van Basten

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)

Simone Inzaghi
Simone Inzaghi

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 
Dado Pršo

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
Ruud van Nistelrooy

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
Andriy Shevchenko

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)

Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi

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
Bafétimbi Gomis

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.

#8 Mario Gómez (Germany)

Mario Gómez
Mario Gómez

Mario Gómez provided the 75th instance of a hat-trick in the Champions League when he scored four goals in Bayern Munich's 7-0 win over Swiss side Basel in the 2011-12 Round of 16.

In the process, the German striker became the first player to net three hat-tricks in the competition.

#9 Robert Lewandowski (Poland)

Robert Lewandowski
Robert Lewandowski

Robert Lewandowski became the first player from Poland and the 66th different player in the Champions League to score a hat-trick when he scored all four goals in Borussia Dortmund's 4-1 win over Real Madrid in the first leg of their 2012-13 semifinal in Dortmund.

It remains the only instance of a four-goal haul in the last-four stage of the Champions League, as Dortmund became the 39th different club, the 6th from Germany (also Werder Bremen, Kaiserslautern, Bayern Munich, Schalke 04, Wolfsburg) to register a hat-trick in the competition.

#10 Zlatan Ibrahimovich (Sweden)

Zlatan Ibrahimovich
Zlatan Ibrahimovich

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored the 86th hat-trick of the Champions League when he scored four goals in Paris Saint-Germain's 5-0 win over Anderlecht in a group game in the 2013-14 edition of the competition.

It made Ibrahimovic the 68th different player and the first from Sweden to score three or more goals in a Champions League game. In the process, PSG became the 40th different club and the fourth Ligue 1 club (also Marseille, Monaco, and Lyon) to register a hat-trick in the competition.

#11 Luiz Adriano (Brazil)

Luiz Adriano
Luiz Adriano

Luiz Adriano became the second player after Lionel Messi to score 5 goals in a Champions League game when he did so for Shakhtar Donetsk against Belarusian club BATE Borisov in a 7-0 win in a group game of the 2014-15 edition of the competition.

It was the 93rd hat-trick in the Champions League as Luiz Adriano became the second Brazilian player (also Adriano Leite Ribeiro) to score multiple hat-tricks in the competition.

#12 Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)

Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo became the only player after Lionel Messi to score four (or more) hat-tricks in the Champions League when he scored four goals in Real Madrid's 8-0 win over Swedish side Malmö FF in a 2015-16 group game.

It was the 100th hat-trick in the competition, and the seventh to be scored by a Real Madrid player (Raúl Gonzalez-1, Ronaldo-1, Karim Benzema-1, Cristiano Ronaldo-4).

#13 Serge Gnabry (Germany)

Serge Gnabry
Serge Gnabry

It would be four more years after Ronaldo's four-goal haul against Malmö that a player scored four goals in a Champions League game.

Serge Gnabry provided the competition's 13th four-goal hat-trick when he scored four in Bayern Munich's 7-2 win over Tottenham Hostpur in a 2019-20 group game.

It was the 127th hat-trick in the Champions League as Gnabry became the 93rd different player, and the fourth from Germany (also Bernd Hobsch, Uwe Rösler, Mario Gómez, and Mesut Özil) to do so.

In the process, Tottenham became the 75th different club to concede a Champions League hat-trick and the 33rd different club to both score and concede a hat-trick in the competition.

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Edited by Zaid Khan