By Frank Ulom
AMSTERDAM (CONVERSEER) – Galatasaray star Victor Osimhen has taken his team closer to the UEFA Champions League (UCL) round 16 spot, thanks to his hat-trick at Amsterdam on Wednesday.
The Nigerian International opened the scoring against Ajax in the 59th minute, thanks to an assist by Leroy Sane.
Osimhen then doubled his tally on the spot in the 66th minute before completing his hat-trick in the 78th minute, still on the spot.
This means, the goal poacher has now scored in four straight Champions League games for Galatasaray, and the Turkish side have won the last three.
He was voted the player of the match after his hat-trick heroics against Ajax.
In total, Osimhen has now scored in eight consecutive matches in the European competition, just three behind Cristiano Ronaldo (11).
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He also broke and surpassed Obafemi Martins (22) as the top goalscorer of all time in European competition (25).
He is the first African player to score a hat-trick for Galatasaray in the UEFA Champions League.
He has scored 12 goals in his last eight matches in European competition for Galatasaray.
Osimhen is currently the competition’s top scorer with six goals, one ahead of Harry Kane of Bayern Munich, Erling Haaland of Manchester City, and Kylian Mbappé of Real Madrid, who sit second, third, and fourth, respectively.
Galatasaray now sit ninth on the UCL log, just below Liverpool on goal difference, in the automatic qualification spot.
Converseer reports that the teams that qualified in the top eight after eight matches go through automatically to round 16, while teams from nine to 24 will play an elimination round to reach round 16. Only eight teams will go through to join the already qualified eight.
Meanwhile, teams below 24 (25 to 36) will be eliminated after the group phase.
Four more matches to go till the end of the group stage of the 2025/2026 season.
