Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has become the first ever player to score five goals in a single Champions League match following Wednesday’s 7-1 thrashing of Bayer Leverkusen at Camp Nou
Five goals from Messi, plus two from Tello, gave the Catalan club a 10-2 victory on aggregate after a 3-1 win in Leverkusen in the first leg of their last-16 tie.
The Argentina international had scored four goals against Arsenal in 2009-10, equalling the record of Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Marco van Basten and Simone Inzaghi, all of whom netted four times in the European Cup or the Champions League.
Messi has now taken his tally to 12 goals in Europe this season, equalling Ruud van Nistelrooy’s 2002-03 record for the most number of goals in a single edition of the Champions League.
The diminutive attacker, who is eight goals away from becoming Barcelona’s all-time top scorer, is six goals ahead of Mario Gomez in the Champions League scoring charts.