So I came upon this thought randomly today, and looked up when was the last time an Italian player scored a hat-trick in the Champions League. I was somewhat shocked to find out that it was Vincenzo Iaquinta for Udinese, in September 2005. That’s right, it’s been 17 years since an Italian has had a treble in the CL. Combined with Gilardino being the last scorer of a hat-trick for Italy a whopping 14 years ago, are these symptoms of the general decline of Italian football or simply Italian forwards?