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Chris Wright, Toe Poke writer
Erling Haaland put in a virtuoso performance in the FA Cup on Tuesday night as the Manchester City striker helped himself to five goals in his side’s comprehensive 6-2 drubbing of Luton Town (stream the replay on ESPN+).
Haaland took just 55 minutes to complete his quintuple with the City striker drawing first blood just three minutes in and then scoring a goal every 11 minutes on average thereafter, ably assisted by Kevin De Bruyne, who laid on four of his five goals.
With his night’s work done, Haaland was then replaced by Julián Álvarez for the final 13 minutes of the game and departed having scored his eighth hat trick for City and his second five-goal flurry.
In fact, the Norway international is now the first and only Premier League player to have multiple five-goal performances in all competitions, having also scored five in a Champions League win against RB Leipzig last season.
Haaland now has 79 goals in 83 games since joining the club but how does his one-man plunder against Luton compare to the biggest single-game goal hauls across different competitions?
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
FA Cup (9 goals)
That pitch 😅
That commentary 🧐
That kit 🤩#OnThisDay in 1970, George Best scored six against Northampton! 🌟 pic.twitter.com/Jr6i4TtNTT— Manchester United (@ManUtd) February 7, 2019
Haaland came close but ultimately fell short of equalling the FA Cup record for most goals scored in a single game of the tournament proper (i.e., not including qualifiers), which has stood since 1971 when Ted MacDougall scored nine for Bournemouth as they beat Margate in a first-round tie.
The Man City striker’s five-goal feat was also not enough to record the biggest haul in an FA Cup match for a top-flight player. That honour still belongs to Manchester United legend George Best, who scored six goals in an 8-2 win at Northampton Town in 1970.
Premier League (5 goals)
#OnThisDay in 2009 we put 9️⃣ past Wigan, including 5️⃣ from @IAmJermainDefoe! #COYS pic.twitter.com/Qf5ydGeMO9
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) November 22, 2016
The Premier League record for most goals scored by the same player in a single match stands at five, which is shared by five players: Andy Cole (Manchester United 9-0 Ipswich Town, 1994-95), Alan Shearer (Newcastle 8-0 Sheffield Wednesday, 1999-2000), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham Hotspur 9-1 Wigan Athletic, 2009-10), Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United 7-1 Blackburn Rovers, 2010-11) and Sergio Aguero (Manchester City 6-1 Newcastle United, 2015-16).
However, it should be noted that Defoe’s record-equalling haul against Wigan in 2009 saw the Spurs striker score all five of his goals in the same half — an feat that is yet to be matched.
#OnThisDay | February 10, 1952 | Imagine scoring 7️⃣ goals in a game – and then getting rebuked in the morning paper! 🤯https://t.co/l0O1lmPKaS
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) February 10, 2020
The Spanish top-flight record for goals in a single game is seven and has been co-held by two players since the 1950s. The first player to do so was Athletic Club forward Agustin Sauto Arana, who hit seven goals in a 12-1 trouncing of Barcelona back in 1931.
His feat was then matched a little over two decades later when Barça legend Laszlo Kubala drew level with Arana by scoring seven goals in a resounding 9-0 victory over Sporting Gijon in 1952. The Hungarian had just returned from injury, but that did not stop newspaper Vida Deportiva from declaring: “Kubala is clearly not fully fit. More than once he was reluctant to challenge for the ball and often pulled back into midfield when he was needed in the forward line.”
While Robert Lewandowski came close to matching the Bundesliga record when he scored five goals in nine minutes for Bayern Munich against Wolfsburg in 2015, the German top-flight record is actually held by Cologne forward Dieter Müller, who rattled away six goals in a 7-2 thrashing of Werder Bremen three games into the 1977-88 season. Years later, Müller said: “I could have even scored two more; I can still remember the chances I threw away.”
The record in Italy‘s top tier is jointly held by Silvio Piola and Omar Sivori, who both scored six goals in one game for Pro Vercelli and Juventus respectively. Piola, who is the all-time record goal scorer in Serie A history (274 goals in 537 games), scored six in a 7-2 win over Fiorentina in 1933 while Sivori’s equally impressive glut came in a 9-1 win over Inter Milan in 1961.
The Ligue 1 record dates back to the 1930s when Andre Abegglen of Sochaux scored seven goals in a 12-1 demolition of Valenciennes in 1935. Three years later, Jean Nicolas did likewise in a 9-1 victory for Rouen against the exact same opposition in 1938.
MLS (5 goals)
Clint Mathis is the Major League Soccer record holder when it comes to the most goals scored by one player in a single game. Mathis’ record has stood since 2000 when he managed to rack up five goals for MetroStars in an entertaining 6-4 win at Dallas Burn.
Men’s World Cup qualifiers (13 goals)
The answer to many a football trivia question, Archie Thompson of Australia has held the record for scoring the most goals in a single men’s international match since 2001 when he helped himself to an astonishing 13 goals in the Socceroos’ famous 31-0 victory over American Samoa during the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Alex Morgan’s 5 goals against Thailand tied the single-game record at a FIFA World Cup. 👏👏👏
Watch them all again here 👀 pic.twitter.com/5vEbxwEwX1
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) June 12, 2019
There have been two five-goal hauls witnessed at the FIFA Women’s World Cup and both were recorded by United States players, some 28 years apart. The first came when Michelle Akers scored five times as the USWNT beat Taiwan (now known as Chinese Tapei) 7-0 in the quarterfinals of the 1991 tournament before going on to lift the trophy. Alex Morgan then equalled Akers’ World Cup record when she scored five goals in a 13-0 hammering of Thailand in the group stage of the 2019 finals — still the biggest-ever victory in the history of the competition. Unsurprisingly, the U.S. won that tournament, too.
World records
When it comes to the out-and-out world record for most goals scored by the same player in an official game, the feats of Stefan Dembicki are going to take some beating.
Dembicki scored 16 times for Lens in what amounted to a 32-0 obliteration of minnows Auby Asturies in the first round of the 1942-43 Coupe de France.
When it comes to women’s football, the world record is held by Shokhan Salihi who scored 15 goals when Al Hilal cantered to an 18-0 win over Sama (now known as Al Bayraq FC) during the 2022-23 Saudi Women’s Premier League campaign.