He told reporters that he looked ’like a clown’ in last weekend’s Premier League match against Burnley when he blew several scoring chances.

But Nicklas Bendtner was the one laughing after last night’s Champions League match against Portugese club Porto FC, where he became the first Dane ever to score a hat-trick in the tournament and only the second Arsenal player to do so. Thierry Henry accomplished the feat in 2002.

Bendtner has been lambasted by the British press for his knack for missing the net. But paired with a dynamic Andrey Arshavin, Bendtner and Arsenal turned a 2-1 deficit to Porto in the first leg to a 6-2 aggregate win.

The club now moves on to the tournament’s quarterfinals.