IFFHS CONTINENTAL NEWS - UEFA


Picture : Kevin De Bruyne (picture with Kingsley Coman yesterday) made his 23rd assists in all club competitions this season: his new best tally in the Manchester City career (surpassing 22 assists in 2019-20). He leads sovereign the ranking of best assistants in Europe's big 5 leagues in 2022-23 (a runner-up Lionel Messi has 18).


Statistics on Champions’ League quarter-finals of 19 April


*Manchester City became just the 3rd English team to qualify for Champions League semi-finals in 3 consecutive seasons; the other two are Chelsea and Manchester United (both from 2006-07 to 2008-09).

*Erling Haaland has scored in 7 consecutive games for Manchester City in all competitions, 15 goals in total, taking only 22 shots on target for this.

*Haaland has missed a penalty for the first time after his 15 successful attempts in a row in all club competitions (excluding shootouts); his last miss was in April 2021, for Borussia Dortmund vs Union Berlin. 

*It was Haaland's 5th penalty in the Champions League (and the first missed). Haaland is the first visiting player to shot a penalty wide vs Bayern in the history of the tournament.

*For the first time in the Champions League history, as many as 3 penalties have been missed (Giroud, Kvaratskhelia and Haaland) in the quarter-final matches of the same season. 

*Thomas Tuchel has started his Bayern Munich career with just 2 wins in 6 games in all competitions; the Bayern coach with so poor start (also 2 wins in first 6 games) was Sören Lerby in 1991.

*Josua Kimmich has scored a penalty for Bayern for the first time. In his previous career, he last scored a penalty goal at youth level 8 years ago (U-21 match between Germany and Azerbaijan). 

*Pep Guardiola has advanced to a Champions League semi-final in 10th time of his 14 seasons as a coach.

*In the forthcoming semi-final tie Manchester City vs Real Madrid, two coaches will meet who have been UCL semi-finalists the most times:
Guardiola (10) and Ancelotti (9). The next in this ranking are Mourinho (8), Ferguson (7) and Van Gaal (5).

*Inter have reached the semi-final stage of the European Cup/Champions League for the 9th time overall and the first time since their victorious season 2009-10. 

*Nicolò Barella became the 3rd Inter player to score in both legs of a UCL knockout fixture, after Christian Vieri in 2002-03 (quarter-final vs Valencia) and Dejan Stankovic in 2005-06 (round of 16 vs Ajax). 

*Two Argentinian players (Lautaro and Correa) have scored in the same Champions League quarter-final match for the first time since 2 April 2014 when Lavezzi and Pastore scored for PSG against Chelsea.

*Milan and Inter will meet in 5 matches in the same season (2 in Serie A, 1 in Italian SuperCup, 2 in UCL) for the first time in the history of the “Derby della Madonnina”.

*Milan and Inter will meet for the 3rd time in a European Cup tie. Milan have won the both previous, 2003 semi-final and 2005 quarter-final.