Every Player to Score Five Goals in a Champions League Match

Only a select few players in history have ever achieved the feat.

Barcelona ran riot against Bayer Leverkusen in 2012—there’s no prizes for guessing who was at the center of things. | LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty Images

Scoring a goal in a Champions League match is a solid achievement for any soccer player—certainly one to tell the grandkids about—but it isn’t exactly rare. Thousands have found the net in Europe’s premier club competition over the years.

A hat-trick? Now we’re talking. It’s far more impressive and much less common, yet still achieved by well over 100 players—including names like Yossi Benayoun, Faustino Asprilla and Kostas Mitroglou (remember him, Fulham fans?).

But five goals in a single game? That’s something else entirely. That’s entry into an ultra-exclusive club—one with only a handful of members in Champions League history.

Here they all are.

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Lionel Messi vs. Bayer Leverkusen (2012)

Lionel Messi was the trendsetter. | JOSEP LAGO/AFP/Getty Images

Barcelona’s 2011–12 Champions League campaign would ultimately end in heartbreak—Fernando Torres rounding Víctor Valdés as Gary Neville lost his composure—but before that moment, its central figure produced yet another spellbinding European performance, one that peaked in the first knockout round.

Lionel Messi had already capped off a 3–1 first-leg win over Bayer Leverkusen, but it was at Camp Nou where history was made. The Argentine became the first player ever to score five goals in a single Champions League match, dismantling the German side almost single-handedly.

Two of the goals were delicate chips over Bernd Leno, the second audaciously executed with his supposedly weaker right foot. Two more were ruthless finishes from close range, and his fourth came courtesy of a goalkeeping error he was only too happy to punish.

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Luiz Adriano vs. BATE Borisov (2014)

Luiz Adriano is an unlikely Champions League record holder. | Getty

Luiz Adriano is probably still public enemy number one in Borisov after his extraordinary exploits against BATE during the 2014–15 Champions League group stage.

The Brazilian netted five goals in Belarus—two penalties and three simple tap-ins—but that was enough to earn him a place alongside Messi in the five-goal club. Just two weeks later, he added another hat-trick as Shakhtar Donetsk inflicted further misery on their Belarusian opponents, bringing his total to eight goals across two games.

Those emphatic wins helped Shakhtar advance to the round of 16, where they got a harsh dose of reality. The Ukrainian side were crushed 7–0 by Bayern Munich in the second leg at the Allianz Arena, a stark reminder of the step up in competition.

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Erling Haaland vs. RB Leipzig (2023)

Erling Haaland scored five against Leipzig in 2023. | Getty/Alex Livesey/Danehouse

Erling Haaland’s goalscoring obsession has been on full display throughout his senior career—none more spectacular than his performance against RB Leipzig for Manchester City in the 2022–23 Champions League.

City’s round of 16 tie was finely poised until Haaland decided to take over. He completed a poacher’s hat-trick just before halftime of the second leg, then added two more before the hour mark, leaving Leipzig reeling.

Pep Guardiola, perhaps fearing an all-time record would be shattered, finally took action and subbed the Norwegian off before he could rewrite the Champions League history books.

Manchester City, of course, went on to win the competition for the first time in club history, with Haaland finishing as the tournament’s top scorer with 12 goals.

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