Who Mohamed Salah has to beat to break fastest Champions League hat-trick record

Nick Watkins - Writer 18:03 29/04/2018
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  • Record breaker: Mo Salah

    Mohamed Salah has been smashing all sorts of records in a season that sees Liverpool just 90 minutes away from another Champions League final.

    The frontman has bagged an incredible 43 goals this season and is just five goals short of Ian Rush’s club record of 47 goals in a single season. The Egyptian King’s stunning form has already seen him break a number of records:

    Most goals by a Liverpool player in a Champions League campaign – 10

    Highest scoring African player in a single Premier League season – 31
    Most goals by a Liverpool player in his debut season
    Most games scored in during a Premier League campaign – 23
    Most left-footed goals in a Premier League season – 24

    Salah has the second leg against Roma and the final (assuming The Reds don’t blow their 5-2 lead from the first leg) to break the record for the fastest Champions League hat trick.

    Who holds the record you ask? You’ll be forgiven for thinking it’s either Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, and you’ll be surprised to hear an ex-Swansea striker is the man to beat.

    Bafétimbi Gomis netted the quickest Champions League hat trick in 2011, scoring three times for French side Lyon against Dinamo Zagreb in just seven minutes.

    Hat trick hero: Gomis

    Hat trick hero: Gomis

    The Frenchman, who has been capped twelve times by his country, began his career with St. Etienne bagging 40 goals in 142 appearances, earning him a move across the country to Lyon – it was here he etched his name into the record books with his quick-fire treble.

    Lyon triumphed emphatically over Dinamo Zagreb 7-1 to progress into the Round of 16. Gomis, who actually scored four goals in the win, beat Mike Newell’s previous record of three goals in nine minutes back in Blackburn’s 1995-96 Champions League campaign.

    The Premier League soon came calling for Gomis, with Swansea City signing the striker in 2014. A year on loan from the Welsh club was spent at Marseille before he joined Galatasaray. The 32-year-old is currently enjoying the best football of his career in Turkey having scored an impressive 27 goals in just 29 appearances.

    Cristiano Ronaldo is the Champions League’s all time top scorer with 120 goals and the Real Madrid attacker has also scored the third fastest hat trick in the competition, having found the net three times in eleven minutes in an 8-0 thumping of Malmo in 2015.

    Octo Finissimo Automatic A Third World Record for Bulgari

    Bulgari is once again the spotlight, proudly presenting its third successive world record.

    The Octo Finissimo Automatic is the slimmest ultra-thin self-winding watch on the market to date.

    After introducing its Tourbillon in 2014 and the Minute Repeater in 2016, the Maison unveils its new creation featuring a total thickness of just 5.15mm, while its self-winding movement is just 2.23mm thick for a 40mm diameter.

    The iconic Octo is once again pushing the boundaries of watchmaking feasibility.

    Bulgari-Finissimo-Octo-5Bulgari-Finissimo-Octo-3 (1)

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