A 21-year-old soccer player in his first season at Turkish club Galatasaray becomes the first Russian in 11 years to score twice in a Champions League match
Source: SportsRu
Galatasaray’s Aleksey Batrakov scored twice in a Champions League match against German club Stuttgart, giving the Turkish club a 2–0 win. The 21-year-old scored in the 12th and 15th minutes.
Batrakov became the first Russian player to score twice in a Champions League match since 2015, when striker Artem Dzyuba scored against French club Lyon while playing for Zenit St. Petersburg.
Batrakov has now scored in three consecutive Champions League matches, having previously scored in a 4–1 loss to Barcelona and a 4–2 win over Lille. He is also the first Russian to achieve that feat since Dzyuba in 2015.
The Russian website Sports.ru reported that Batrakov’s brace was:
- The fastest by a Russian or a Galatasaray player in the Champions League.
- Scored by the second-youngest player to net twice within the first 15 minutes of a Champions League match. Only Real Madrid’s Rodrygo, who did so at 18 in 2019, was younger.
Aleksey Batrakov joined Galatasaray this summer. In his first Champions League season, he is now considered one of the tournament’s leading scorers.
Russian clubs have not played in the Champions League since 2022, when they were barred from UEFA competitions because of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The ban does not apply to Russian players at European clubs.
Russia and international sports
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