Christian Benteke struck the fastest goal in a competitive international and went on to complete his hat-trick as Belgium defeated Gibraltar 6-0 in a World Cup qualifier.

The Crystal Palace striker stole the ball in the home side’s half after two Gibraltar touches following the kick-off and weaved his way through their defence to score after only 8.1 seconds. 

The previous record was held by San Marino's Davide Gualtieri who scored against England in 1993.

Benteke's was also the quickest goal ever scored by Belgium.

"The coach told us to press high as soon as the game kicked off," Benteke told Belgian network RTBF.

"Their defender did not anticipate the back pass well and I got ahead of him and made for the goal."

Belgium is second in the FIFA rankings while Gibraltar, almost predictably, are rock bottom.

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.