Borussia Dortmund’s Serhou Guirassy made headlines after scoring a perfect hat-trick against Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals, scoring with his right foot, his left foot and a header. Following his performance, we take a look back at Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’s hat-tricks in the competition: Have they scored a perfect one?
Ronaldo did it once. In 2017, the Portuguese star scored a perfect hat-trick against Bayern Munich in the 2017 Champions League quarter-final in the Santiago Bernabeu. He opened with a header, followed up with a left-footed goal, and finished with one from his right.
His performance helped Real Madrid win 4 to 2 after extra time, sealing a 6 to 3 result over two legs. Unlike Guirassy’s case, in which his strong performance wasn’t enough to advance to the semi-finals, as Barcelona ended up with a 5-3 victory on aggregate.
Ronaldo has delivered ten perfect hat-tricks, the most among every player, over the course of his career. Lionel Messi, in contrast, has never scored one. The Argentine forward has only 28 headers in his entire career, which may be part of the reason.
Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid celebrates scoring against Bayern in 2017 (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Still, Messi has produced some rare scoring feats of his own. He once scored three goals with his right foot against APOEL in 2014 and completed a dead ball hat-trick against Celta Vigo in 2019 that included a penalty and two free kicks.
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Messi and Ronaldo’s hat-tricks in the Champions League
Ronaldo and Messi share the record for most hat-tricks in the Champions League, with eight each. Ronaldo scored seven with Real Madrid and one with Juventus. Messi’s eight all came while playing for Barcelona.
Meanwhile, Robert Lewandowski is next on the list with six, spread across his time at Dortmund, Bayern Munich, and Barcelona. Ronaldo also holds the record for most hat-tricks in a single Champions League season, having scored three in the 2015-2016 campaign.
