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Chelsea have secured top spot in a Champions League group stage for the first time since 2015-16, winning four games in a row in the competition since 2011-12, but the headlines on Wednesday belonged only to one man.
Olivier Giroud was making his first Champions League start of the season, and just the second start in all competitions, but he now has six goals in total, thanks to not one, not two, not three, but four (4!) goals against Sevilla — and four goals of the highest quality, including the un-save-able penalty to put the cherry on top of the icing on top of our cake.
The 34-year-old backup (!) striker thus becomes the first Chelsea player to ever score four goals in a European Cup or Champions League match (Peter Osgood once scored five, but that was against Jeunesse Hautcharage in the Cup Winners’ Cup). And he’s the first Chelsea Chelsea player to score four goals in any competition since now-manager Frank Lampard did so against Aston Villa in March 2010.
4 - Olivier Giroud is the first Chelsea player to score four goals in a game since Frank Lampard in March 2010 vs Aston Villa, while he's the first to net four for Chelsea in a European Cup/Champions League game. Incredible. pic.twitter.com/p3k9sdCz9k
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 2, 2020
He’s also the oldest player ever to score (at least) a hat-trick in the Champions League proper, and the oldest in the European Cup since The Galloping Major, Ferenc Puskás did so for Real Madrid in 1965.
For Chelsea, Giroud’s hattrick+1 is the 152nd time in club history that a player has scored at least three goals in a match. It’s actually the second time Giroud has done so for Chelsea, the first coming in March 2019 against Dynamo Kiev in the Europa League. Loving that European stage, Oli G!
It’s our first Champions League hattrick since Didier Drogba’s against Levski Sofia in 2006, and Giroud’s the oldest player to score more than once in a game for us since Drogba in 2011 against Valencia.
Phew.
Last 10 hattricks for Chelsea:
Jan 2016 — Oscar: 3 vs. MK Dons (a) 5-1 — FA Cup
Sep 2017 — Batshuayi: 3 vs. Nottingham Forest (h) 5-1 — League Cup
Sep 2017 — Morata: 3 vs. Stoke City (a) 4-0 — Premier League
Sep 2018 — Hazard: 3 vs. Cardiff City (h) 4-1 — Premier League
Oct 2018 — Loftus-Cheek: 3 vs. BATE (h) 3-1 — Europa League
Mar 2019 — Giroud: 3 vs. Dynamo Kiev (a) 5-0 — Europa League
Sep 2019 — Abraham: 3 vs. Wolves (a) 5-2 — Premier League
Oct 2019 — Pulisic: 3 vs. Burnley (a) 4-2 — Premier League
Sep 2020 — Havertz: 3 vs. Barnsley (h) 6-0 — League Cup
Dec 2020 — Giroud: 4 vs. Sevilla (a) 4-0 — Champions League
So then, who starts on Saturday against Leeds United?