Man or machine? That’s what we used to ask of goalscoring robot Erling Haaland. In fact, we still do; Halaand has multiple hat-tricks in this Premier League season alone.
But there is one player who exceeds Haaland in strikes for club and country this season: Viktor Gyökeres. The 26-year-old Swede has 53 goals in 2024, besting Haaland by 13. Last night, he also became the second Swedish striker to achieve a Champions League hat-trick
Digging a bit deeper, we see that Viktor Gyökeres is also the fifth player in history to score a hat-trick against a Pep Guardiola-coached side. Last night, the Sporting striker gunned three past Manchester City in head coach Ruben Amorim’s farewell Champions League match at Estádio José Alvalade. In doing so,
Who are the other four players to hit three past Guardiola in one game? Let’s take a look.
Sergio Aguero, 2014
Sergio Agüero scored three against a Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich side on October 19, 2014 during the UEFA Champions League group stage. Agüero netted twice in the final minutes sto seal the hat-trick over 10-men Bayern.
Lionel Messi, 2016
You just knew Messi was going to be in this list, didn’t you. Of course, he bagged a treble against his former boss upon Guardiola’s return to Camp Nou. The 4-nil drubbing over the Cityzens in October 2016 in Champions League was just the wake-up call Guardiola needed.
Jamie Vardy, 2016 and 2020
Red-bull-infused Jamie Vardy has scored two hat-tricks on Guardiola’s side. The first occured in December 2016 when EPL title-winners Leicester were trying to defend the crown. It was also Vardy’s first EPL hat-trick.
Vardy hung up three past Guardiola four years later in a match during week 3 of the Premier League, during COVID quarantine. The defeat ended City’s 11-match undefeated home Premier League record dating back to the prior season.
Christopher Nkunku, 2021
Christopher Nkunku put on a show against Guardiola’s City side when he netted three for RB Leipzig in a September 2021 Champions League clash. But the Spaniard took all three points home as City routed the Bundesliga team 6-3.
