Sunday, December 22, 2024
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Which of the world's top strikers have scored more goals in a game than Mbappe's five?

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Kylian Mbappe broke new ground on Monday by scoring five goals in Paris Saint-Germain‘s 7-0 demolition of sixth-tier side Pays de Cassel in the Coupe de France.

The win ensured safe passage from the round of 32 for the reigning champions, and maintained Lionel Messi’s hopes of lifting the one trophy he’s tried and failed to win in his senior career.

As well as taking his tally for PSG in all competitions this season to 25 goals in just 24 games, Mbappe also became the first man to score five goals in a single competitive game for PSG.

Just to round off his virtuoso display, the 24-year-old striker also chipped in with an assist for Neymar to score PSG’s second goal of the night, before the Brazilian then turned provider for Carlos Soler to add his side’s sixth just after the hour mark.

All scored between the 29th and 79th minute of tie, Mbappe’s five-goal extravaganza against Pays de Cassel also represented the biggest single-game haul of his career to date, eclipsing the four goals he scored for PSG in a 5-0 Ligue 1 victory over Lyon in 2018-19.

But how do his cup heroics stack up against the biggest single-game goal gluts recorded by his most illustrious contemporaries in the men’s game? Here they are, listed initially by the number of goals and then alphabetically.

– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

The reigning holder of the Ballon d’Or has scored 10 career hat tricks to date: eight for Real Madrid and two earlier in his career for hometown club Lyon. Perhaps his most iconic hat trick came against defending champions Chelsea in the first leg of the 2021-22 Champions League quarterfinal, which included a flurry of two headed goals in three minutes as the eventual winners won 3-1 at Stamford Bridge.

Ibra has scored a “poker” on four separate occasions during his career: twice with Paris Saint-Germain and twice for Sweden. The most famed example must surely be his single-handed crushing of England in a friendly back in 2012, when the striker rounded off a 4-2 victory for the Swedes with a truly immense long-range overhead kick in the final minute. Not a bad climax to the first-ever football match played at Stockholm’s Friends Arena.

Kane has scored 19 hat tricks during his professional career, though twice has managed to add a fourth to the haul: once for Tottenham Hotspur in a 6-1 win over Leicester City in 2017, and again in England’s 10-0 thumping of San Marino in a 2022 World Cup qualifier which included a fabled “perfect” hat trick (scoring goals with his left foot, right foot and head). The Spurs striker also set a new Premier League record by racking up an impressive four assists in one game and all for the same teammate, repeatedly laying on chances for Son Heung-Min to finish in a 5-2 win at Southampton in 2020.

Salah took the Premier League by storm in his first season at Liverpool in 2017-18, scoring an incredible 32 goals in 36 league appearances to win the first of his three Golden Boot awards. A combination of Salah’s sublime dribbling and Watford’s desperate defending helped the Egyptian net four times in a 5-0 win at Anfield, and he even assisted the other goal for Roberto Firmino.

Lewandowski took just nine minutes to score all five goals in Bayern Munich‘s 5-1 victory over Wolfsburg during the 2015-16 Bundesliga season. What’s more, the Polish poacher only entered the fray as a half-time substitute when his side were trailing 1-0.

Messi has scored five goals in a single game twice in his career with the first being his record-breaking performance for Barcelona against Bayer Leverkusen in 2012 in which the forward became the first man to score five times in a single Champions League match. The second instance came just last year, when Messi scored all five of Argentina’s goals in a 5-0 rout of Estonia in an international friendly played on neutral ground in Spain, becoming the first Albiceleste player to do so since 1942.

Neymar (5)

Neymar has scored four goals in a single match on four occasions, but his career record came during his early years at Santos when the striker scored five goals in a Copa do Brasil tie against Guarani in 2010.

Among his 60 (sixty!) hat tricks, Ronaldo has also scored five goals in one match on two occasions over the course of his long and prolific career — the first being a five-goal whirlwind in Real Madrid’s 9-1 obliteration of Granada in LaLiga back in April 2015. The Portuguese forward then repeated the feat with Los Blancos just four months later when he registered five goals and an assist in a 6-0 drubbing of Espanyol the following season.

Before his peak years scoring hatfuls of goals for Liverpool and Barcelona, the young Suarez helped himself to six goals for Ajax in a mammoth 14-1 win over minnows WHC Wezep in the KNVB Beker round of 16.

Haaland is already on course to smash several Premier League goal-scoring records with Manchester City this season but, as far as his senior career goes, the Norwegian forward has maxed out at four goals in one game — a feat he has achieved with both Borussia Dortmund and FK Molde.

However, his overall record stands a frankly astonishing nine goals in one game, which was mustered while playing for his country in a 12-0 win over Honduras at the 2019 Under-20 World Cup.

Haaland’s formidable hat trick of hat tricks is the most goals scored by any one man in a single FIFA World Cup game at any level.

Spare a thought for his City teammate Julian Alvarez, who himself joined the club from River Plate not long after scoring six goals in one Copa Libertadores game and is a World Cup winner, but still watched Haaland score his hat trick against Wolves on Sunday from the Etihad bench.


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