When a footballer scores three or more goals in a single match, he takes centre stage in a moment that can make him one of the standout performers of the matchday. However, when this feat is achieved in the premier international club competition, that moment of glory is etched forever in the history books of both the competition and the sport itself. The player is immortalised in the history of the sport. Today we look back at the history of all the players who have scored four goals in the Champions League in its current format, which has been in place since 1992, as only one player achieved this feat in the former European Cup. That player was Ferenc Puskás, in the 1960 final between Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt.
Simone Inzaghi - 14/03/2000
Contrary to what many people think, Simone Inzaghi, brother of fellow footballer Filippo Inzaghi, was not the first player to score four goals in the ‘new’ Champions League. The four goals scored by the Serie A SS Lazio striker against Olympique de Marseille came eight years after another player had achieved this feat.
Marco van Basten - 25/11/1992
The legendary Dutch striker for AC Milan was actually the first to score four goals in a single match in the current Champions League, having achieved this feat in the competition’s first-ever group stage, during the inaugural season of the revamped Champions League format, 1992/93. Scoring more than three goals in a single Champions League match is no mean feat and, in fact, this list comprises just 15 players. After Van Basten and Inzaghi, the list includes names such as Dado Pršo, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Andriy Shevchenko, Bafétimbi Gomis, Mario Gómez, Robert Lewandowski, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Luiz Adriano and Josip Iličić. And, of course, this list would not be complete without Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi, two of the greatest stars in the history of world football.
Leo Messi - 06/04/2010
The Argentine FC Barcelona player is one of only two footballers to have achieved this feat on two occasions. The first was in a Champions League quarter-final match in 2010 against Arsenal FC, and the second was in a match against Bayer Leverkusen in 2012, in which he scored not four, but FIVE goals.
Cristiano Ronaldo - 08/12/2015
Despite being the competition’s all-time leading goalscorer, the Portuguese star has only ever scored four goals in a single match on one occasion. It was in the Real Madrid v Malmö FF match during the group stage of that season’s Champions League.
Serge Gnabry - 01/10/2019
We had to wait four years to see a player score four goals in a single Champions League match again. It happened in a thrilling Tottenham Hotspur v Bayern Munich match, in which the young German international star, Serge Gnabry, wrote his name into the history books of both international and German football by scoring four goals in a historic victory for the Bavarian side in London.
Interesting facts
- Only two players have managed to score four goals in a single Champions League match on more than one occasion: Robert Lewandowski and Lionel Messi.
- The Netherlands and Germany are the only two countries to feature on this list with two players each.
- Luiz Adriano managed to score all four of his goals in the first 45 minutes of the match.
