Champions League: Osimhen hat-trick downs Ajax, Atalanta earn dramatic win at Marseille
Galatasaray were too good for Ajax, while there was late drama as Atalanta beat Marseille in the Champions League.
Victor Osimhen scored two penalties as part of a hat-trick that helped Galatasaray sink rock-bottom Ajax 3-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday.
The Nigeria striker opened the scoring just before the hour at Johan Cruyff Arena when he met Leroy Sane's in-swinging cross with a brilliant diving header.
Osimhen doubled the lead when Youri Baas was pinged for handball in the area, the former Napoli ace powering his effort into the bottom-left corner.
Another handball, this time from Gerald Alders, gifted Osimhen the chance to secure the hat-trick, and he fired high to round out a win that leaves Galatasaray with nine points, and Ajax rooted to the bottom with four losses from as many games.
Atalanta needed a dramatic 90th-minute winner from Lazar Samardzic to earn a 1-0 win over Marseille at Stade Velodrome.
Charles De Ketelaere had seen a first-half penalty saved by Geronimo Rulli, Ademola Lookman had a goal ruled out, and several other chances went begging before the visitors finally found the winner through Samardzic's breakaway goal – Marseille left furious as they felt Ederson had handled in his own area at the other end.
Atalanta are consequently 16th, while Marseille are down in 25th.
Data Debrief: Osimhen matches Ronaldo feat
With his hat-trick, Osimhen is the third player to score a hat-trick away at Ajax in the Champions League, alongside Cristiano Ronaldo (2012 for Real Madrid) and Lucas Moura (2019 for Tottenham), while it is only the second time a Gala player has notched a hat-trick in the competition (Burak Yilmaz in November 2012 v CFR Cluj).
Osimhen has now scored in each of his last eight appearances in major European competition, the longest such run since Robert Lewandowski managed nine between November 2020 and 2021.
Rulli was on the losing side for Marseille, but he has saved four of his 10 penalties faced in Europe's big-five leagues across all competitions since the start of last season; only Nikola Vasilj and Vanja Milinkovic-Savic have more in that time (both six).
Since the start of the last campaign, only Inter (11), Arsenal (10) and Paris Saint-Germain (eight) have recorded more clean sheets in the Champions League than Atalanta (seven), who have recorded back-to-back shutouts following a run of just one in eight matches.
