A historic haul, a magical night: Josip Iličić will remember for long his Valencian trip and not only for the Man of Match award he was given at the end of the match and the game ball he took with him, which he is going to add to his large collection. It’s actually been the fifth time since he joined Atalanta that he has scored at least three goals in a match and, interestingly, it has always happened away (the previous four were in Serie A matches: 5-0 to Hellas Verona in March 2018, 5-1 to ChievoVerona in October 2018, 6-2 v Sassuolo in December 2018 and 7-0 v Torino last 25th January).

Iličić has become in fact the first-ever player to score four goals in a UEFA Champions League away match in the knockout stage. The Slovenia international star player is the only fifth player from an Italian club to score at least four goals in the highest European competition since its establishment (1955 including the European Champion Clubs’ Cup too), the second player to do that away after Shevchenko (the Ukrainian had managed to do it in the Group stage) in 2005 (Football Data, Florence statistics).

During this edition of the Champions League, he’s been the third player to score four goals in one single match after Gnabry and Lewandowski of Bayern Monaco in the group stage.

Not only that: Iličić’s goals have risen to 14 in the calendar year 2020, overcoming Cristiano Ronaldo in this special ranking, as he hit 13, ahead of Haaland, Mbappe and Dembele with 12.

Josip with his four goals at the Mestalla has now scored 21 goals this season so far (15 in the league, 5 in the Champions League and 1 in the Coppa Italia), improving once more his personal best.