Erling Haland matched Yakubu Aiyegbeni and Yacine Brahimi’s Champions League record with his hat-trick in Red Bull Salzburg’s 6-2 thumping of Genk in their opening group game on Tuesday night.
The Norwegian youngster, who made his maiden appearance in the Champions League, helped the Mozartstadter to a comfortable first-leg advantage against the Belgian champions, scoring in the second, 34th and 45th minutes.
The performance saw him become the eighth player to have scored a hat-trick on their Champions League debut after former Nigeria international Aiyegbeni, who achieved the feat while playing for Israeli’s Maccabi Haifa and Algeria’s Brahimi, who scored his hat-trick with Porto.
Others who have claimed the honour include Marco van Basten [Milan], Faustino Asprilla [Newcastle United], Wayne Rooney [Manchester United], Vincenzo Iaquinta [Udinese] and Grafite [Wolfsburg].
Haland has scored 17 goals across all competitions this season for Salzburg, including 11 in the Austrian Bundesliga.
He will hope to continue his imperious performances when Salzburg take on LASK in their next league game on Sunday.
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