NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - Harry Kane scored his sixth hat trick of 2017 in Tottenham’s 3-0 win over Apoel Nicosia in the Champions League on Tuesday, taking the in-form striker’s tally to five goals after two Group H games.
After going through his usual dry spell in August, the Premier League’s top scorer for the past two seasons is back to his prolific best. It’s now nine goals in his last five games in all competitions for the England striker.
Kane followed up his double in Spurs’ 3-1 win over Borussia Dortmund by grabbing the opening goal in Cyprus when he finished from the edge of the area in the 39th minute from Toby Alderweireld’s defense-splitting pass.
An unmarked Kane got his second in the 62nd when he received a pass from Moussa Sissoko and fired again past goalkeeper Boy Waterman. He rounded off his hat trick five minutes later with a header from inside the box after meeting a cross from Kieran Trippier.
His haul featured goals with his right foot, left foot and head - sometimes referred to as the “perfect hat trick.”
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino said after Kane’s double in the 3-2 win over West Ham in the Premier League on Saturday that he was “in love” with the striker.
Asked if he’d swap Kane for current world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo, Pochettino said: “Kane is one of the best, Ronaldo is one of the best.”
The 24-year-old Kane tied a Champions League record of scoring five goals in the first two games of a group campaign, after Ronaldo and Filippo Inzaghi. He has seven goals in five games in Europe’s top competition.
It was Tottenham’s biggest away win in the Champions League.
For Apoel, it is two straight 3-0 losses to open the group, after defeat at Real Madrid two weeks ago. The Cypriot team, which is making its fourth appearance in the group stage, came closest to a goal in the 19th minute when Igor De Camagro’s blistering left-foot shot rattled the crossbar.
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