The longest journey ever made by an English club in Champions League history is now part of football lore. The Newcastle squad travelled 4,087 km to the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium in Azerbaijan’s capital, and returned home with a 6-1 win over Qarabag in their luggage.
But even more remarkably, winger Anthony Gordon scored four goals - and all in the first half - joining a select group of players worldwide.
Across 34 editions of the tournament, only six different players (in seven different matches) have scored at least four times in Champions League knockout rounds, if we consider just the current era of the Champions League from 1992/93.
At a time when long trips weigh heavily on clubs’ routines amid a packed calendar, the English side is on track for another possible record after their visit to Baku.
If Newcastle delivers another rout, they could make history by matching or breaking the most lopsided aggregate score ever recorded in a knockout round of Europe’s top competition.
In the round of 16 of 2008/09, Bayern Munich set the record by winning 11-0 on aggregate (5-0 away, 7-1 at home) against Sporting from Lisbon. The Bavarian side, managed by Jurgen Klinsmann at the time, featured scorers such as Bastian Schweinsteiger, Miroslav Klose, and Thomas Muller - pillars of the German national team that, just over five years later, would beat Brazil 7-1 in the 2014 World Cup semi-final at Mineirao.
Four goals in knockout matches
Besides Gordon, this 'four-goal club' also includes Robert Lewandowski, Mario Gomez, Josip Ilicic and Lionel Messi.
The Polish striker achieved the feat for Borussia Dortmund in a 4-1 win over Real Madrid in the 2012/13 semi-finals. The Argentine genius scored four against Arsenal in the 2009/10 quarter-finals - Barca also won 4-1 that day.
'Super Mario' pulled it off for Bayern when his team thrashed Basel 7-0 in the 2011/12 round of 16. While Slovenian Ilicic scored all four for Atalanta against Valencia in the 2019/20 round of 16.
Some players have scored five goals!
Messi is also part of an even more exclusive group. Only he and Erling Haaland have scored five goals in a single Champions League knockout-round match.
The Argentine achieved this in 2011/12, when Barca hammered Bayer Leverkusen 7-1. The Norwegian did it more recently, in the 2022/23 edition, when City beat RB Leipzig 7-0.
The five-goal list in a single match features just three players, counting both knockout and group stages. The third is Brazilian Luiz Adriano. Playing for Shakhtar Donetsk in 2014/15, the Internacional academy product scored five in the Ukrainian side’s 7-0 win over BATE Borisov of Belarus, but in the group stages.
Lewa appears twice on the overall list
Lewandowski also features among those who scored four goals in a single group stage match - he’s the only one to have done it twice in the tournament, if we exclude Messi's five-goal haul. The second time was for Bayern, in a 6-0 win over Crvena zvezda in 2019/20.
Since 1993, the feat has been achieved by 13 other players, if we include the Champions League group stages and knockouts together.
The list starts in 1992/93 with Marco van Basten (Milan) - only he and Sebastien Haller (Ajax) managed it on their Champions League debuts - and includes names like Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Paris Saint-Germain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), and Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid).
Puskas holds the record for goals in a final
The bar for any goalscorer has been set high since the final of 1959/60 - and it’s never been surpassed. Across all formats of Europe’s top club competition, Hungarian Ferenc Puskas (Real Madrid) is the only player to have scored four goals in a final. The victim was Eintracht Frankfurt, beaten 7-3.
Alongside the Madrid legend - who scored over 700 goals in his career - Alfredo Di Stefano (one of Puskas’s great teammates), Sandor Kocsis, Messi, and Lewandowski have also scored four goals in matches from the quarter-finals onwards in any era.
Back to the present, the question is whether Gordon, who previously averaged 0.7 goals per game in the Champions League and now has risen to 1.1, will keep up his scoring pace.
Four goals in the modern Champions League knockout rounds
• Anthony Gordon (Newcastle): 6-1 vs Qarabag, 2025/26 play-off
• Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich): 4-1 vs Real Madrid, 2012/13 semi-final
• Lionel Messi (Barcelona): 4-1 vs Arsenal, 2009/10 quarter-final
• Josip Ilicic (Atalanta): 4-3 vs Valencia, 2019/20 round of 16
• Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich) – 7-0 vs Basel, 2011/12 round of 16
Five goals in the modern Champions League knockout rounds
• Lionel Messi (Barcelona): 7-1 vs Leverkusen, 2011/12 round of 16
• Erling Haaland (City): 7-0 vs RB Leipzig, 2022/23 round of 16
Four goals in the modern Champions League group stages
• Andriy Shevchenko (Milan): 4-0 vs Fenerbahce, 2005/06
• Bafetimbi Gomis (Lyon): 7-1 vs Dinamo Zagreb, 2011/12
• Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid): 8-0 vs Malmo, 2015/16
• Dado Prso (Monaco): 8-3 vs Deportivo La Coruna, 2003/04
• Harry Kane (Bayern Munich): 9-2 vs Dinamo Zagreb, 2024/25
• Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid): 4-3 vs Olympiacos, 2025/26
• Marco van Basten (Milan): 4-0 vs IFK Goteborg, 1992/93
• Olivier Giroud (Chelsea): 4-0 vs Sevilla, 2020/21
• Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich): 6-0 vs Red Star, 2019/20
• Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United): 4-1 vs Sparta Prague, 2004/05
• Sebastien Haller (Ajax): 5-1 vs Sporting, 2021/22
• Serge Gnabry (Bayern Munich): 7-2 vs Tottenham Hotspur, 2019/20
• Simone Inzaghi (Lazio): 5-1 vs Olympique Marseille, 1999/2000
• Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG): 5-0 vs Anderlecht, 2013/14
Five goals in the modern Champions League group stages
• Luiz Adriano (Shakhtar Donetsk): 7-0 vs BATE Borisov, 2014/15