Lewandowski named UEFA Player of the Week

Robert Lewandowski has always had a love affair with the Champions League. First at Borussia Dortmund, then at Bayern Munich and now it's continuing at FC Barcelona. Wednesday was his first game in the competition wearing the blaugrana jersey, and he responded with not one, not two, but three goals. Simply magnificent.

In recognition of his fantastic game, he collected the UEFA Player of the Week award.

He scored his first after 34 minutes, a brilliantly placed finish from the edge of the area, then headed in a Dembélé cross just before half-time and rounded off his hat-trick with another exemplary conversion to make it 4-0. Not just for his goals, but for everything else he did tonight, he was the obvious choice for the MVP prize.

History maker

It makes him the first player ever to score a UCL hat-trick for three different clubs. And he also joins a very select list of what are now nine players who have scored hat-tricks in their first ever appearance for a club in the competition. Rooney, Morientes, Haaland, Grafite, Yakubu Iaquinta, Orsic, Asprilla and Brahimi are the others.

Before today, he was tied with Karim Benzema in third place in the all-time list of Champions League goalscorers. Both had 86 goals, but the Pole now has 89. Only Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have scored more.