Kylian Mbappe on track to break Champions League record held by Cristiano Ronaldo & Lionel Messi
Kylian Mbappe scored his fourth Champions League hat-trick last night and is on course to break the record, which is currently held by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
After his recent heroics against FC Kairat, Mbappe has scored more hat-tricks in the UCL than the likes of Neymar, Mario Gomez and Filippo Inzaghi.
Here’s the full breakdown of the five players with the most Champions League hat-tricks and how long it will take Mbappe to break the record.
=4. Kylian Mbappe – 4 hat-tricks
The Frenchman is now halfway to becoming the joint record holder for the most hat-tricks in the history of the Champions League.
He managed to score his fourth hat-trick during his 89th appearance in the competition.
If he takes another 89 matches to score his next four hat-tricks, he’ll equal the record in fewer matches than Ronaldo, who scored eight hat-tricks across 183 UCL appearances.
Although he’ll have to become even more prolific if he wants to break the record in fewer matches than Messi.
With the volume of goals he’s been scoring since joining Real Madrid, it’s feasible that the Frenchman could score more than four hat-tricks in Europe over the next few years to break the record.
=4. Karim Benzema – 4 hat-tricks
Joint with Mbappe on four hat-tricks in Benzema, who made 152 appearances in the competition.
His four hat-tricks all came for Real Madrid and were against AJ Auxerre, Malmo, PSG and Chelsea.
Along with tying level with Benzema’s hat-trick tally, Mbappe is only 30 goals away from equalling his total tally in the UCL of 90 goals.
3. Robert Lewandowski – 6 hat-tricks
With the way Lewandowski is still performing, there’s a chance that he could surpass Messi and Ronaldo on this list.
The 37-year-old is still performing at the highest level, having scored 105 goals in 154 appearances since joining Barcelona in 2022.
His last hat-trick in the competition came during his debut season for Barcelona when he scored three against Viktoria Plzen during a 5-1 triumph in September 2022.
=1. Lionel Messi – 8 hat-tricks
Messi’s eight hat-tricks have been scored against Arsenal, Viktoria Plzen, Bayer Leverkusen, Ajax, APOEL, Celtic, Man City and PSV.
His last hat-trick in the competition came in September 2018 during his 126th appearance in the Champions League.
That means that if Mbappe wants to level Messi’s record in fewer matches, he’ll need to score four hat-tricks in his next 37 appearances in Europe – or score five hat-tricks to break the record.
=1. Cristiano Ronaldo – 8 hat-tricks
As things stand, the record is tied between Messi and Ronaldo, who’ve each scored eight hat-tricks.
However, it does have to be said that Messi scored his eighth hat-trick in fewer matches than it took CR7.
In the case of Ronaldo, his eighth hat-trick in the competition came against Atlético Madrid in March 2019, during his 160th game in the competition.
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TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every club Kylian Mbappe has scored against in the Champions League?