Haller breaks Champions League record as ex-West Ham ace enjoys Ajax resurgence

Ajax striker Sebastien Haller has broken a Champions League goal scoring record after finding the net in Tuesday night's victory for his side against Besiktas.

The Ivory Coast international striker netted the Amsterdam club's second goal in the match, which continued their perfect winning start to their group stage campaign.

Steven Berghuis had opened the scoring for Erik ten Hag's side before Haller was on hand to double the lead two minutes before the break.

That carried on his remarkable goal scoring form in the competition following his stunning debut performance in the Champions League earlier this month.

Ajax striker Sebastien Haller has netted five goals in two Champions League games ( Image:

MAURICE VAN STEEN/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Haller bagged an incredible four goals as the Dutch giants stormed to a 5-1 opening day victory at Sporting Lisbon in what was somewhat of a statement victory.

His goal on Tuesday evening meant that the striker is now the first player in the history of the Champions League to net five or more goals across his first two appearances in the competition.

Earlier this month in Lisbon, Haller had become the first player to score four goals on his Champions League debut since Marco van Basten for AC Milan against IFK Goteborg in November 1992.

However, the Dutch attacking legends had already played for the Italian giants in the European Cup.

It carries on a remarkable year for Haller, who became Ajax's club record signing earlier this year when they signed him from West Ham United for a fee of €22.5million (£20m).

He was then in the headlines for reasons beyond his control as the Dutch giants made an embarrassing administrational error as they forgot to register their record signing for European competition.

An Ajax club spokesman told ESPN NL at the time: "It is indeed true that Haller is not on our Europa League list of players.

"We are working with the KNVB and UEFA to find out where things went wrong."

That meant that the striker was unavailable for the knockout stages of the club's Europa League campaign.

West Ham boss David Moyes said following the sale of the striker: "I said right at the start that to sell Seb in this window was not the given plan.

"We got an offer which we thought at this time was a good offer. We didn't know if we would receive that offer later or at a time to suit us so that was a decision we had to make.

"At football clubs you have to make decisions. Some are unpopular, some don't go right and quite often some of the work very well. This is a decision we had to take at that time."

Haller has now scored 23 goals in 33 appearances for Ajax while also scoring twice in four appearances at international level for the Ivory Coast.

Ajax are in Group C of this season's Champions League in a draw that had appeared to be well balanced with German club Borussia Dortmund the favourites to progress into the Round of 16.

The Amsterdam club are now strong favourites to join them following their perfect start to the competition, while Turkish side Besiktas remain without a point after defeats in each of their opening games.