Fernando Torres - The Spanish hat-trick master (Video)

By Mirror Football in Mirror Football Blog

Published 17:27 28/09/09

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Fernando Torres bagged the sixth hat-trick of his career on Saturday during Liverpool's 6-1 drubbing against Hull at the weekend.

Here MirrorFootball takes a quick look down memory lane to remember all of El Nino's trebles for club and country.

1. San Marino 0-6 Spain 2006, World Cup Qualifier (12/10/2005)

Spain ripped San Marino apart from the first minute, when Antonio Lopez scored, to the 89th minute when Torres completed his hat-trick with a penalty. The hosts had no chance and couldn't contain the rampant striker who was clinical. Step aside Raul - the pupil had become the master.

2. Reading 2-4 Liverpool, League Cup ( 25/09/2007)

Fernando Torres capped a fine performance with his first hat-trick for Liverpool as they dumped Reading out the Carling Cup. Each side was creating chances galore but only the Spaniard seemed to be the only one finishing them. He scored two right-footed efforts before finishing the Royals off by beating the offside trap and going round the keeper to casually roll the ball into the net.

3. Liverpool 3-2 Middlesborough, Premier League ( 23/02/2008 )

Torres single-handedly won the game for Liverpool - after some dreadful defending by the Reds saw them go a goal down at Anfield. But the boy-wonder rode to the rescue and some equally dreadful defending from Boro handed him his first on a plate when he capitalised on a dreadful back-header to notch his first. His second was a nice swerving effort before yet more comical defending from Boro saw him rob both the keeper and a defender to lash in his third from the edge of the box.

4. Liverpool 4-0 West Ham, Premiership ( 05/03/2008 )

The £20m striker embarrassingly slaughtered West Ham's back-four with his second hat-trick in the space of two weeks. He stole across his marker in the box to hook in his first, and headed in his second after West Ham failed to clear a corner. He saved his best til last, taking the ball down in the box, ghosting past a defender and then finishing from a tight angle. Steven Gerrard rounded off the scoring with a goal in injury time, but the match ball belonged to the boy from Madrid, and the Liverpool skipper made sure he got it.

5. Spain 5-0 New Zealand, Confederations Cup ( 14/06/2009 )

His famous 11-minute hat-trick and his second for his country. He scored his first in the sixth minute with a beautiful curled effort, before tapping in his second after David Silva pulled the ball back for him in the box. He completed his treble in the 17th minute when he rose above two New Zealand defenders to power a bullet header into the top corner to leave the Kiwis stunned.

6. Liverpool 6-1 Hull, Premier League ( 26-09-2009 )

The Spanish striker showed great footwork to sidestep the Hull defence and slot in his first before Geovanni equalised. For his second he timed his run perfectly to stay onside and almost teased the Tigers back line and keeper before flicking the ball into the net with the outside of his right foot. He completed his treble on 47 minutes when he nutmegged Paul McShane with a curler into the bottom corner. Perhaps taking pity on the Tigers, Rafa Benitez took him off on 65 minutes before he could do any more damage.

Is El Nino the best striker in World football at the moment? Or is the Spaniard over-rated?  Would you say all his hat-tricks have been against average teams? Sign in and leave your comments below...

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