Alexander Sørloth: which players have scored four goals against Real Madrid? Who scored five times?

Alexander Sørloth wrote his name into the history books as he tore past a sleepy Real Madrid defence after half time in the eventual 4-4 draw between Los Blancos and Villarreal, taking his tally to four in one game.

The ‘Yellow Submarine’ striker scored in the first half but flashes of brilliance from Lucas Vázquez and Luka Modric - not to mention Arda Güler - saw Ancelotti’s side go into the break with a 1-4 lead.

The LaLiga title is already wrapped up, meaning Ancelotti was able to rotate his side, but the defence that included Éder Militão looked unprepared to deal with the physicality of the former Real Sociedad man, and his strength and perseverance saw him hit three in quick succession after the restart.

How many players have scored four or more goals against Real Madrid?

Taty Castellanos became just the 10th man to do so, following in the footsteps of Barcelona attacker Robert Lewandowski, the only player to have scored four times against Madrid in the Champions League (for Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of the 2012-13 semi-finals).

Three former Barça men have also done it: José Samitier all the way back in 1926, along with Eulogio Martínez in 1957. Both of those four-goal hauls came in Copa del Rey ties, while Martín Vantolrà, also while playing for La Blaugrana, became the second man to do it in the league in 1935. The first was Carlos Bastit (in 1929) of Barcelona-based CE Europa, who now play in Tercera Federación (the fifth tier of Spanish soccer) but featured in the first ever LaLiga season starting in 1928.

If you don’t quite remember that far back, then perhaps you will recall a more recent cup occurrence; ex-Argentina international Diego Milito scored four goals as Real Zaragoza incredibly thumped Los Blancos 6-1 in the first leg of the semi-finals in 2005-06.

Who is the only player to have scored five goals against Real Madrid?

Incredibly enough, the remaining three names we haven’t already mentioned all achieved the feat in the 1940s while playing for Real Oviedo, a club which was formerly owned by Carlos Slim, whose Grupo Carso still have a 20% stake in. Grupo Pachuca, also of Mexico, are now the majority shareholders. After Martínez Català had done it in 1940, Emilín repeated the feat four years later.

But in 1947, Esteban Echevarría went one better than his clubmates and indeed everyone else, becoming the only player in history to have scored five goals in a competitive game against Real Madrid.

Castellanos’ 34-minute hat-trick

Castellanos scored his first three goals in the space of 34 minutes (between the 12th and 46h minutes), which sounds fast but is less impressive by comparison to Lewandowski (16 minutes), Martínez (15 minutes), Emilín (10 minutes) and Bestit (seven minutes).

A night to remember for Taty Castellanos

The first of Castellanos’ goals came after 12 minutes, a well-placed header from a cross from Miguel Gutiérrez, signed from Madrid last summer. The striker then ran on to a long ball in behind the visiting defence and held off Eder Militão before firing low past Andriy Lunin.

He then completed his hat-trick just after half-time, sweeping home a low cross from the right sent in by Iván Martín. But, as we know, the Argentine wasn’t finished there, heading in from close range just after the hour-mark after Rodrigo Riquelme’s long-range shot had deflected into his path.

He had not been replaced - to a standing ovation - by Christian Stuani after 72 minutes, perhaps he could have equalled or even beaten Echevarría’s 76-year-old record.