Europa League: AC Milan’s 19-year-old Alphadjo Cissé becomes Italy’s youngest European hat-trick scorer

Header on 15 minutes, left foot on 32, right foot on 59: Alphadjo Cissé scored three times in the same game in Salzburg on Thursday night, and AC Milan ran out 4-0 winners. The club’s first European win of the season, after the 0-2 home defeat by Benfica on matchday one.

Two days with Tresoldi, twenty-eight years with Del Piero

At 19 years and 358 days, the striker is the youngest Italian player to score three goals in a single European cup tie. Nicolo Tresoldi had held the record for two days, with his hat-trick in Club Brugge’s 4-3 win over Inter Milan; Alessandro Del Piero had kept it since a Juventus-Monaco in 1998.

Ruben Amorim starts him behind centre-forward Francesco Camarda, and the goals follow: five in eight games, the club’s top scorer ahead of Diego Moreira (3) and Gonçalo Ramos (2). Signed from Hellas Verona in February for €8m, after a six-month loan at Catanzaro in Serie B, the Treviso-born forward has played for Italy at every youth level, from the Under-16s to the Under-19s.

“He can be explosive, but he still has to grow physically, in training and in games. Tonight he produced an extraordinary performance,” Ruben Amorim said. The player plays it down: “Honestly, it’s secondary. The important thing was to win, and we did.” RMC Sport raises a first senior call-up as early as November, against France in the Nations League.

Sunderland and Bournemouth won too

Elsewhere on Thursday, Torreense cracked late against Sunderland, who won 2-1 away, and Bournemouth beat Sturm Graz 3-0. On Sunday at the Vitality Stadium, Sunderland, 17th on four points, travel to Bournemouth, 18th on three: the two teams at the wrong end of the Premier League arrive off European wins.