As the ball clipped the underside of the crossbar and hit the back of the Real Betis net, the home supporters at the Benito Villamarn Stadium rose as one to applaud.Some even bowed to acknowledge the maestro, simply a joy to watch when he is in such form.
351 career hattricks for Messi What a way to get it pic.twitter.com/1bIKQukV2i— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) March 17, 201912 years ago at the Camp Nou, as a teenage prodigy the Argentina international scored his first treble. The stage was none other than a potentially La Liga-deciding Clasico, but Messi was as composed as the veteran we see gliding past defenders at will to this very day.Since that day in March 2007, the 31-year-old has returned eight hat-tricks in the UEFA Champions League, 33 in the league, three in the Copa del Rey, one in the Spanish Super Cup and a further six at international level.
3- Messi’s 33 Liga trebles are second only to Cristiano Ronaldo’s 34, so overhauling the Portuguese now plying his trade with Juventus in Serie Ais a realistic ambition for the Blaugrana ace.
- Valencia, Osasuna, Espanyol and Deportivo have been Messi’s favoured opponents in La Liga, the No.10 claiming hat-tricks against each of them on three separate occasions (he has a Copa del Rey treble against Valencia too); Messi also has three hat-tricks against Sevilla, including two in the Liga and one in the Spanish Super Cup, and three against Atltico two Liga and one Copa del Rey.
3- At international level, the most crucial of Messi’s six Argentina hat-tricks came in Ecuador in October 2017, his triple strike securing the Albiceleste a place at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
- Messi’s club-mate Surez boasts an outstanding hat-trick return: the Uruguayan plundered nine for Ajax, six for Liverpool (three of them against Norwich) and has 12 for Barcelona as well as a further two for his nation.
- Three other South Americans Sergio Aguero, Edinson Cavani and Radamel Falcao have reached double figures for hat-tricks in recent years, while the relentless Robert Lewandowski leads the European charge.
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Porto progressed to the quarter-finals of the Champions League after Alex Telles' penalty secured a 3-1 victory over Roma three minutes from the end of extra-time. After cancelling out Roma's 2-1 first-leg lead to take the tie beyond 90 minutes, Telles' late strike, after a Video Assistant Referee review, earned them a 4-3 aggregate
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Sarri famously loathes the transfer window and prefers to leave the buying and selling of players to others, and he's admitted he was in the dark about the signing of Pulisic before it was announced. "I don't know," Sarri replied when asked about Pulisic's move. "I didn't know anything about Pulisic on Tuesday.
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negative narrative The Manchester City forward, who was the victim of alleged racial abuse at Stamford Bridge, accused the British press of 'fuelling racism' in English football talkSPORT host Adrian Durham has argued there is a clear racist agenda against Raheem Sterling after the forward suffered alleged racial abuse at Stamford Bridge.
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After the emphatic victory over Chelsea last week, this fixture promised to be less taxing considering the fact that Spurs has scored 17 goals against Stoke in the last 4 encounters. It was anything but a stroll. To their credit, Stoke worked very hard - though not very skilfully - to upset Spurs' rhythm.
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