Lionel Messi overtakes Ronaldo to top Champions League hat-trick list
With his hat-trick over Celtic on Tuesday, Lionel Messi now has six Champion League hat-tricks to his name - one more than his rival Cristiano Ronaldo. Barcelona thumped the Scottish side 7-0 in their Champions League opener, as Neymar and Luiz Suarez also got their names on the score sheet.
Champions League records, once believed to be impossible to attain, have kept stumbling after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo took to the pitch. Both the forwards have surpassed each other to become the Champions League's highest goal-scorer, in the past few years with their incredible goalscoring feats. While Ronaldo surpassed Messi by eleven goals last season by guiding Real Madrid to their eleventh Champions League title, it was Messi's chance to cut down the numbers with a brilliant hat-trick against Celtic on Tuesday.
Until last season, Ronaldo and Messi were joint top for most hat-tricks in Champions League history with five hat-tricks each, but with Tuesday's result, Messi went one past the Portuguese forward.
Despite claiming this record, the Argentine is still 8 goals behind Ronaldo in the Champions League's all-time top scorer list with 86 goals. Former Real Madrid and Schalke player Raul Gonzalez sits third in the list with 71 goals.
