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Liverpool enjoyed a terrific evening of Champions League football on Tuesday, romping to a 4-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen.
It wasn’t an easy night for the Reds by any means, but once Luis Diaz chipped a beautiful finish over Lukas Hradecky, the game was only going one way.
Diaz himself went on to score twice more for Liverpool and in doing so became only the seventh player to score a Champions League hat-trick for the Reds.
In honour of Lucho’s treble, we decided to take a look back at the other six.
Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Liverpool’s first Champions League hat-trick came courtesy of Michael Owen.
Unfortunately, they soon stumbled and ended up in third place of the four team group, exiting the competition.
With a mixed period in and out of the competition, Liverpool had to wait five more years following Owen’s hat-trick to hit another treble.
This time it was Yossi Benayoun, who notched three times as the Reds hammered Besiktas 8-0 at Anfield in the Group Stage of the 2007/08 season.
Liverpool went on to reach the semi-final under Rafa Benitez, before losing to Chelsea.
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Remarkably, Liverpool did not see another player hit a hat-trick in Europe’s premier competition for a full 10 years after Benayoun.
Exactly 10 years and one month later, it was the turn of Philippe Coutinho, who bagged an impressive treble while captaining the Reds to a 7-0 Group Stage win in December 2017.
Ironically, Spartak were the opponents once more as Liverpool smacked them on their way to a final defeat.
Just like London buses, Liverpool’s Champions League hat-trick’s then came one after another in 2017/18.
Sadio Mane bagged what is to date the only knockout stage treble in Liverpool’s history.
Mane memorably put Porto to the sword in the last-16, slamming three past the Portuguese side and sending Liverpool well on their way to the quarter-finals.
And the former Wolves man wasted little time in making his mark.
Though the game was unfortunately played behind closed doors, Jota wowed everyone who was present to watch the Reds smash Atalanta away from home in November the same year.
Three well taken goals set Liverpool up for a 5-0 win before they later crashed out in the quarter-finals to, who else, Real Madrid.
It’s almost unbelievable that three other players managed this feat before him since his arrival at Liverpool in 2017, but Mohamed Salah got there in the end.
Liverpool’s greatest ever Champions League scorer had to wait a while, but finally scored thrice against Rangers in a 7-1 Group Stage win during 2022/23.
Introduced as a second-half substitute, Salah hit by far the quickest of these trebles, with just six minutes between his first and third goals.
As Diaz adds his name to this illustrious list, he’ll now be looking to become the first Liverpool player ever to hit multiple hat-tricks in the Champions League.
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