Paris Saint-Germain are safely through to the Champions League second round.That might sound like something of a formality considering the French champions romped their way to the latest final, but a place in the 'Group of Death' almost scuppered their 2020/21 ambitions.Nevertheless, PSG found their footing when they needed it most, blowing the group wide open with a stellar 3-1 win at Manchester United last week.
PSG progress in Europe
The fantastic result at Old Trafford came courtesy of a remarkable performance from Neymar who was a thorn in the United side all evening and scored the Parisians' first and third goals.
The latter, sparked by some incredible skill from Neymar, ensured that PSG had a superior head-to-head record against United, who were duly dumped out of the competition with defeat to RB Leipzig.
It meant that PSG would progress to the second round regardless of their clash with Ä°stanbul BaÅŸakÅŸehir, which was played over two nights due to an alleged instance of racist abuse.
Hat-trick vs Istanbul
And although PSG were already safely through to the knockout rounds, they still put on a thrilling display at the Parc des Princes to emerge 5-1 victors with Neymar once again shining.
In fact, the most expensive player of all time helped himself to a glorious hat-trick in the French capital, while Kylian Mbappe notched a brace and Mehmet Topal grabbed a consolation goal.
It was the third time that Neymar has bagged a treble in Europe's premier competition - a hat-trick of hat-tricks, if you like - meaning that he joined an exclusive club of players boasting that very feat.
Neymar joins exclusive club
Besides, only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have scored more than three Champions League hat-tricks, both frankly showing off with a mind-bending tally of eight trebles apiece.
But Neymar could move into second place outright with one more hat-trick as he's joined by four more lethal centre-forwards on three, according to data gurus Squawka.
The full list of players with at least three hat-tricks goes as follows: Ronaldo (8), Messi (8), Neymar (3), Robert Lewandowski (3), Mario Gomez (3), Luiz Adriano (3) and Filippo Inzaghi (3).
Credit to Neymar
That's some pretty esteemed company for Neymar to find himself alongside with the exception of odd-one-out Adriano who is the only player lacking a Champions League winners' medal.
Then again, the Shakhtar Donetsk cult hero will always have a place in the hearts of European football fans as only the second player to score five goals in one game in the competition.
As for Neymar, though, you'd hardly back against him to move clear on four, five or perhaps many more hat-tricks by the time he's finished, particularly when 2020 has been so positive for him.
There's no denying that Neymar is one of the top five players in the world when it comes to raw ability, but this year has shown that he's starting to deserve that ranking across the board once again.