A day in history: 13 years ago, Messi became the first to score a Champions League quintuple

Lionel Messi is one of the greatest footballers in the history of the Champions League, but March 7 holds a special significance for him.

Details: On this day, exactly 13 years ago, Lionel Messi became the first player in Champions League history to score 5 goals in a single match.

This happened in the round of 16 match of the 2011/12 Champions League season between Barcelona and Bayer Leverkusen at Camp Nou.

In that match, the Catalans triumphed 7-1. Besides Messi, Cristian Tello also found the net twice.

In total, Messi scored 73 goals in 60 matches that season.

Later, only two other players in Champions League history have managed to score a quintuple. Luiz Adriano scored 5 goals for Shakhtar against BATE, and Erling Haaland scored 5 goals against RB Leipzig.

Reminder: Today, Messi missed Inter Miami's match against Cavalry in the UEFA Champions League, but his team won 2-0.