Liverpool’s golden striker Mohamed Salah has been under scrutiny all season since the departure of Sadio Mane.
Plenty of fans and pundits have called Salah’s quality into question over the past three months, so the Egyptian striker decided to shut them up yesterday.
Salah has seven goals in 12 matches across all 2022-2023 Liverpool competitions. Those are pretty good numbers for someone reportedly struggling to find form.
Salah pulled his fast hattie in the final half-hour of Liverpool’s 7-1 beatdown of Rangers in Scotland. It only took the goal-scorer six minutes and 12 seconds to set the new record.
The old record? It’s surprisingly close.
In fact, two other players have scored UCL hat tricks in under 10 minutes, which is pretty damn impressive. Before yesterday, the record holder was Bafétimbi Gomis of Lyon, who pulled an eight-minute trick against Dinamo Zagreb in 2011. Mike Newell of Blackburn hit three in nine minutes in 1995 against Rosenborg.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Raheem Sterling are also on the fastest-ever lists from their time with Man City and Real Madrid, respectively. Perhaps most impressively, Robert Lewandowski is in the top 10 twice, having scored hat tricks in under 13 minutes twice in the last three years for Bayern Munich.
While Lewandowski’s current squad Barcelona may be out of the Champions League with yesterday’s tie, Salah and Liverpool look set to cruise to the next round provided they don’t lose both of their next two UCL games against Ajax and Napoli.
Featured Image: DALL-E 2/UEFAChampionsLeague/DM