Serie A Star Beats Lionel Messi, Makes UEFA Champions League History

A Serie A goal scorer makes history in UEFA Champions League and beats an incredible Lionel Messi haul record.

In the UEFA Champions League, Atalanta’s wild campaign continued during a recent and enthralling win over Valencia. The said win was a night to remember for star Atalanta striker Josip Ilicic, who beats Messi’s haul record in a unique way.

Ilicic was the best performer of the night after netting all four of his side's goals against their LaLiga opponents. In the process, he became only the fourth player after Messi, Mario Gomez and Robert Lewandowski to score four or more goals in a knockout match in UEFA Champions League.

While being fourth isn’t really that surprising for some, the Slovenia international is the first player ever to make the said feat away from home, with his haul coming at the Mestalla Stadium in Spain, Soccer Laduma reported.

The 32-year-old scored twice from the penalty spot in the first half, before netting twice in the second stanza to secure his side's progression to the next round of the tournament.

To date, Ilicic has now scored 21 goals across all competitions for Atalanta so far this season, including 15 in 21 Serie A appearances and five more in the Champions League.

The Serie A outfit, who are competing in the Champions League for the first time this season, progressed to the quarter-finals on the said win after securing a 4-3 (8-4 aggregate) win over Spanish side Valencia.

Last January, Ilicic was one of the most notable players in Europe who had the chance to beat Ronaldo as the best rated Serie A player.

According to WhoScored, which rated the performances of 11 players last weekend from Europe's top five leagues, with additional information about their Football Index share prices, Ilicic was hailed “player of the week.”

The 31-year-old garnered a perfect WhoScored “10 rating,” his third in a league game this season after netting 3 goals against Torino. His seasonal rating in Serie A once became 7.82, closing in on Ronaldo, who is currently sitting at the no. 1 spot with 7.88. Not to mention that this was the time when the Portuguese superstar was bagging goals for Juventus and breaking multiple records.

In a recent interview with Daily Mail, Ilicic revealed that he has no plans of slowing down anytime soon. In fact, he even said that he’s getting better as he gets older.

“I am getting better with age. I am having fun and want to carry on improving. I just focus on what I am doing, not the defenders who are in front of me. I see a space and I go there,” Ilicic said.