Kylian Mbappe made UEFA Champions League history with four goals for Real Madrid against Olympiacos. Have Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo ever done anything similar?
This Wednesday, Real Madrid secured an important 4–3 win over Olympiacos in Greece, improving their position in the UEFA Champions League group standings. Kylian Mbappe scored four goals, achieving a feat reminiscent of the best years of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
It was the first time Mbappe reached that number in a single Champions League match in his career. His previous best was three goals, something he accomplished on three occasions: twice with Paris Saint-Germain (against Club Brugge in 2019 and Barcelona in 2021) and once this year with Real Madrid (against Kairat Almaty).
These numbers place Kylian in a select group of players whose performances in European competition have amazed fans in recent decades. Cristiano Ronaldo is part of that group as well, though with one detail that further highlights Mbappe’s achievement: despite being the all-time leading scorer in Champions League history and having played the competition until age 37, CR7 reached the four-goal mark only once.
On December 8, 2015, Ronaldo scored four goals against Malmo in Real Madrid’s 8–0 win at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. That was his best European performance, followed by seven other matches in which he recorded hat-tricks. Mbappe, at only 26 years old, has plenty of time to surpass those numbers.
How many times has Messi scored 4 or more goals in the Champions League?
After Cristiano Ronaldo, the player with the second-most goals in UEFA Champions League history is Lionel Messi. It’s no surprise the Argentine forward has remarkable numbers in the competition, rivaling those of any soccer legend.
Between his European debut in 2004 and his arrival at Inter Miami in 2023, Messi competed in 19 editions of the Champions League with Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. On six occasions, Leo recorded hat-tricks, all with Barcelona, while in two other matches he scored even more.
On April 6, 2010, Messi led Barcelona to a 4–1 win over Arsenal at Camp Nou in the second leg of the quarterfinals. That day, the Argentine forward scored all four of his team’s goals. And two years later, he surpassed even that feat: on March 7, 2012, Messi scored five goals against Bayer Leverkusen in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16.
Mbappe joins Real Madrid’s elite group
Kylian Mbappe’s performance in Greece shows the enormous impact he is already having at Real Madrid. His achievement against Olympiacos is so significant that he has joined a select group made up of the greatest legends in the history of the Spanish side.
Before Wednesday, only three players had scored four goals for Real Madrid in a Champions League match—also counting the years when the tournament was known as the European Cup. Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas each did it twice during the club’s golden era in the 1950s and 1960s. The other case was Cristiano Ronaldo, in that match against Malmo. Now Mbappe has joined them.
