Article by Tudor Belivacă – Published Wednesday, February 18, 2026 9:07 p.m. / Updated Wednesday, February 18, 2026 9:07 p.m.
According to OPTA statisticians, he is only the second footballer in history to score four goals in the first half of a Champions League match. The first to achieve this feat is a surprising name: Luiz Adriano, in 2014, when he was playing for Shakhtior, against BATE Borisov.
Anthony Gordon also became the fastest Englishman to score a hat-trick in the Champions League. At the same time, he also became the fastest player of an English team to score a hat-trick, according to sportal.blic.rs.
Anthony Gordon, stellar with Qarabag! Newcastle settled the match in one half in Azerbaijan
Anthony Gordon opened the scoring against the Azerbaijan champions as early as the third minute and Malik Thiaw doubled the visitors' lead in the eighth minute. Gordon converted a penalty in the 32nd minute, making the score 3-0, and in the next attack he scored once more, taking advantage of the errors that continued in the Qarabag defense.
In the extra time of the first part, he got another penalty for Newcastle, which he converted. Thus, the striker of the “Cotofene” became the third footballer in the history of the Champions League to score four goals in a single half, a feat previously achieved only by Lionel Messi (in the second half) and Luiz Adriano.
Anthony Gordon transferred to Newcastle in 2023 after the “cotofenes” paid Everton 45.6 million euros. This season he has 36 games for Newcastle, 14 goals and 5 assists and is the second top scorer this season in the Champions League after Frenchman Kylian Mbappe. It is quoted by specialized websites at 60 million euros.
