PSG’s Achraf Hakimi achieved a feat in 2024-25 that solely Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and a choose few others have managed in trendy soccer historical past – and it’s significantly unimaginable when you think about he’s a right-back.
The Morocco worldwide grew to become simply the fifth participant to attain within the quarter-finals, semi-finals and last of the Champions en path to getting their arms on the trophy.
Unimaginable gamers together with Karim Benzema, Robert Lewandowski, Didier Drogba and Mohamed Salah have delivered the products on huge Champions League nights, however none of them can boast this report.
Listed here are the one 5 gamers to have achieved the feat.
Diego Milito – Inter – 2009-10
The noughties noticed the likes of Raul, Andriy Shevchenko and Samuel Eto’o win the Champions League, bagging a ton of iconic objectives within the knockout phases between them.
However the first participant to notch within the quarters, semis and last and win the factor was a comparatively unglamorous one.
Argentinian Sly Stallone lookalike Milito produced the season of his life for Jose Mourinho’s treble-winning Inter in 2009-10.
After scoring within the Spherical of 16 towards Chelsea, Milito bagged additional objectives towards CSKA Moscow, Barcelona and Bayern within the quarters, semis and last respectively.
In addition to these clutch objectives on the European stage, Milito additionally scored the match-winner on the ultimate day towards Siena that clinched Inter’s Scudetto, in addition to the one objective within the Coppa Italia last victory over Roma. Excellent.
Lionel Messi – Barcelona – 2010-11
Clearly Messi options.
He was simply 23 years previous through the 2010-11 marketing campaign, when Arsene Wenger declared him “the best footballer the world has ever seen”.
That sounds ridiculous for a participant so younger, nevertheless it makes complete sense when you think about simply how good Messi was again then.
Messi scored 53 objectives in all competitions that yr, together with two towards Wenger’s Arsenal within the Champions League Spherical of 16, one towards Shakhtar Donetsk within the quarters, two towards Actual Madrid within the semis and one other for good measure within the 3-1 Wembley masterclass towards Manchester United.
Neymar – Barcelona – 2014-15
Barcelona’s entrance three scored a scarcely plausible tally of 122 objectives and 66 assists between them within the treble-winning 2014-15 marketing campaign. Simply suppose for a second about how insane that’s.
Neymar was the one one of many trio that scored within the quarters, semi and last of the Champions League marketing campaign that yr.
The Brazilian scored three objectives towards each PSG and Bayern and capped off the most effective season of his profession by scoring within the seventh minute of harm time within the Champions League last.
Cristiano Ronaldo – Actual Madrid – 2016-17
Clearly Ronaldo options.
The stunning factor is that’s solely the as soon as. It felt like when Actual Madrid had been dominating the Champions League within the mid-2010s – profitable it 4 out of 5 occasions between 2013 and 2018 – Ronaldo was scoring in each single knockout recreation.
The one time he scored within the quarters, semis and last was within the 2016-17. That yr he really notched a comparatively fallow 12 Champions League objectives, in comparison with 17 the yr earlier than and 16 the yr after, however he made positive to attain them when it mattered.
That yr he didn’t rating any of Los Blancos’ six objectives within the Spherical of 16 towards Napoli, however he did rating 5 over two legs towards Bayern Munich, a hat-trick towards Atletico Madrid and two extra within the last. Unstoppable.
QUIZ: Are you able to title each participant to attain 10+ Champions League knockout objectives?
Achraf Hakimi – PSG – 2024-25
Take a look at the above names. All elite, era-defining forwards.
Allow us to remind you, as soon as once more, that Hakimi is a right-back.
It’s astonishing that he joined that exalted firm in 2024-25, however right here we’re. He scored necessary objectives in PSG’s victories over Aston Villa, Arsenal and Inter.
That’s 33% of his complete objectives for the season. Speak about choosing your moments.
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TRY A QUIZ: Are you able to title the 20 gamers with probably the most Champions League knockout stage appearances?
