The incredible hat-trick that Kylian Mbappe scored on his way to knocking Manchester City out of the Champions League made history in the world of football.
In a record amount of time, the 26-year-old player scored his 500th goal contribution. The second goal of his treble came in the knockout play-off, which he ultimately won 3-1.
Following the five-goal thriller that took place at the Etihad Stadium the previous week, Carlo Ancelotti’s team entered the second leg with a 3-2 lead.
Mbappe put his team firmly in the ascendancy with a beautiful lob over Ederson with just four minutes remaining on the clock in the match that took place on Wednesday night.
In the 33rd minute, the player who won the World Cup in 2018 scored his second goal of the evening. He did so by cutting inside Josko Gvardiol, who was sliding, and then shooting into the near corner of the goal.
His goal was his 500th goal contribution [358 goals, 142 assists] across all competitions between club and country. His strike turned out to be a landmark strike.
At the age of 26 years and 61 days, he has achieved the unprecedented feat of becoming the youngest player to ever reach the milestone.
In the past, Lionel Messi, a legendary player for Barcelona, held the record for most goals scored. Messi achieved this feat while being one month older than Mbappe.
When Cristiano Ronaldo reached the milestone of 500 goal contributions, he was 28 years old. Ronaldo is the player who has scored the most goals in the history of professional football matches.
And immediately after the hour mark, Mbappe added the icing on the cake by completing his hat-trick, which means that he is now working towards achieving 500 career goals.
The ball was picked up on the right-hand side of the box, and he shuffled it onto his left foot before curling a magnificent shot into the far corner of the box.
This is his second treble in Real’s colours since he joined the club on a free transfer in the summer of last year, bringing his total number of goals scored across all competitions to 27.
After scoring a hat trick against City, Mbappe became only the fourth player in the history of the Champions League to accomplish this feat.
In October 2016, Messi accomplished this feat during Guardiola’s return to Camp Nou. In 2021, Christopher Nkunku scored three goals against City in RB Leipzig’s 6-3 loss to City. Messi repeated this feat in October 2016.
And Viktor Gyokeres, who plays for Sporting Lisbon, scored three goals in a row during the league phase of the most prestigious competition in Europe earlier this year.
Mbappe’s third goal of the evening is also the seventh goal he has scored against City in the Champions League. Messi and Mbappe share the record for the most goals scored against City.
And only Ronaldo [four] now has more Champions League knockout hat-tricks than Mbappe [two].
In another incredible first, Mbappe is now the only player to both score a European Cup hat-trick at the Bernabeu [Real vs City, 2025] and at the Nou Camp [Paris Saint-Germain vs Barcelona, 2021.]
Speaking after the match, Mbappe said: “” A perfect night for the team. We wanted to win. We wanted to qualify for the next round.
Real Madrid’s advancement to the next round of the Champions League was, in our opinion, a natural and inevitable progression.
It is always a challenging game to play against Manchester City, but we were aware that, when we were playing at home, we would be in a fantastic position.
We performed more effectively as a group, and we were able to bring a great deal of happiness to the audience.
“If we want to win what we want to win this season, we have to keep playing in the same manner that we have been.
My goal is to have a strong performance here, and I want to leave my mark on the season. My goal is to leave my mark on history with Real Madrid.
Now that the period of adaptation for me has come to an end, it is time for me to demonstrate my quality.
Nico Gonzalez scored a late consolation goal for City, which was his first goal for the club since he joined from Porto earlier this month. This was the first time that Gonzalez had scored for City since he joined from Porto.
