Karim Benzema has sent records tumbling as he put Chelsea to the sword with a hat-trick in the first leg of Real Madrid's Champions League quarter-final tie at Stamford Bridge.
The Frenchman came into the game off the back of a hat-trick against Paris Saint-Germain in the second-leg of Real's last-16 tie, and quickly added to his tally with a splendid header from 14 yards, before finding another brilliant aerial effort to double his tally and his side's lead.
And, a minute into the second half, free-scoring Benzema was handed his third goal on a plate, with Edouard Mendy making an awful mistake to allow the Real Madrid forward to roll the ball into an empty net from 25 yards out.
In doing so, he became only the second ever player to have scored hat-tricks in consecutive knockout games of the Champions League, former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo the only other man to have produced the feat.
France record tumbles
It was not just that record that caught headlines, either, with Benzema becoming the first Frenchman to hit double figures in a Champions League season, overtaking the eight goals netted by Wissam Ben Yedder and Kylian Mbappe previously.
Additionally, he became the first player to ever score a Champions League hat-trick against Chelsea since the competition began.
Continuing to improve with age, it seems impossible that the 34-year-old will not add to his tally across the remainder of the Champions League campaign, and should he continue scoring at his current rate, Los Blancos have a great chance of going all the way.
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