IFFHS CONTINENTAL NEWS AND STATS - UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Picture : Harry Kane has now been directly involved in 47 Champions League goals !
Statistics on Champions’ League: Round of 16, 1st leg (March 5)
Bayern vs Bayer Leverkusen 3-0
*Harry Kane, by a brace, extended to 9 his UCL goals this season: the most by an English player in a single campaign in the UCL era.
Overall in the tournament history (including European Cup era since 1955), he is the second English player to score 9 goals in a season after Dennis Viollet in 1956/57 (for Manchester United).
*Kane has been directly involved in 47 Champions League goals (37 goals, 10 assists), equaling Wayne Rooney's tally.
Only David Beckham has more goals and assists (52) among English players in the competition.
*Kane has now scored 30+ goals in a club season for the 3rd time in a row (2022-23 with Tottenham, next two with Bayern) and for the 7th time overall in his club career .
Since the first season he did so (2014-15), only Robert Lewandowski has more 30+ goal campaigns (9) for clubs in Europe's big five leagues.
Paris St. Germain vs Liverpool 0-1
*PSG ended a run of 22 games without defeat in all competitions (18 wins, 4 draws).
9 of PSG's last 10 defeats have been in the Champions League.
*PSG have played their 9th consecutive match without leading at half-time at the Parc des Princes in the Champions League against a foreign team (only 1 goal scored in the first half during their matches).
*Liverpool beat PSG despite having 25 fewer shots than them (2 to 27): the joint-biggest negative difference in shots by a winning team on record (from 2003-04) in a Champions League knockout stage game (after PSG vs Bayern in April 2021).
*Two occassions of most shots in a Champions League knockout round game without scoring both now belong to PSG (also 30 vs Borussia Dortmund in 2023-24 semifinal).
Oddly enough, none of last 72 shots for PSG in the Champions League knockout stage against a foreign team have gone in the back of the net.
*PSG are also the first team in the last 8 UCL seasons to have 10 shots on target in a knockout round game and not find the back of the net.
*Alisson's 9 saves v PSG are the most by a Liverpool goalkeeper in a Champions League game, and his personal most in any match for the club in all competitions.
*Harvey Elliott scored 46 seconds after coming on as a substitute: the second fastest goal of this kind in the Champions League this season, after Ademola Lookman’s for Atalanta (after 35 seconds against Club Brugge), and the fastest ever scored by a Liverpool substitute in Champions League.
*Marquinhos (102 appearances with PSG) became the most experienced player with the same French club in UCL, ahead of Steve Mandanda with Marseille (101).
Benfica vs Barcelona 0-1
*For the first time in the history of the Champions League, a team (Barcelona) wins an away game despite playing 69+ minutes with one less player.
The previous record was held by Juventus, who won in Valencia in 2018 (in the group stage), playing 62 minutes with one man down (after Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off).
Curiously, Wojciech Szczęsny was a winning side’s keeper in both occasions.
In the European Cup era (1955-1992), Barça have once won a game (3-2 vs Sparta at Camp Nou in 1991) playing 73 minutes with one less player (after Guillermo Amor’s expulsion).
*Szczęsny has made 8 saves against Benfica, a record for any Barcelona goalkeeper without conceding a goal in a single Champions League game since at least the 2003-04 season.
*Pau Cubarsí, suffering his first red card for Barcelona in all competitions, became the youngest ever player (18 years 42 days) to be sent off in a Champions League knockout match and the 2nd youngest in the competition overall after Celestine Babayaro (sent off in group stage in 1994 at 16 years 86 days).
*Raphinha, after his winner, is now the most decisive player in the Champions League this season with 13 goal involvements (9 goals, 4 assists) tied with Dortmund’s Serhou Guirassy (10 goals, 3 assists).
This is joint-second most goal involvements by a Brazilian player in a single Champions League campaign, along with Kaka (13 for Bayern in 2006-07) and behind only Roberto Firmino (17 for Liverpool in 2017-18).
*Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha form the 2nd Barcelona partnership with 9+ goals scored by each of mates in a single Champions League season, after Messi & Neymar in 2014-15.
*Barcelona have handed 16 starts to players aged 18 or younger in the Champions League this season, the most by a team in a single campaign in the competition’s history (overtaking Ajax’s 15 such starts in 1994-95).
Feyenoord vs Inter 0-2
*Inter have kept a clean sheet in 89% of their 2024-25 UCL matches (8 in 9), the greatest proportion ever by a team in a single season of the European Cup/Champions League (with minimum 5 games played).
They've conceded just 1 goal in their 9 UCL matches this season.
*Inter have now kept a clean sheet in 60.5% of their Champions League games under Simone Inzaghi (23 in 38): the highest percentage for any manager with 30+ games in charge of a club in the competition.
*Lautaro Martínez has now scored more Champions League/European Cup goals for Inter (18) than any other player in the club’s history.
Sandro Mazzola’s old club record (17) has finally been broken.
*Timon Wellenreuther became the first goalkeeper to save 2 penalties in a single Champions League campaign for a Dutch side (excluding shootouts).
He saved from Bojan Miovski (Girona) on 2 October 2024 and now from Zieliński (Inter).
*Jeyland Mitchell is the 25th different player to start a match for Feyenoord in the Champions League this season: more different starters than any other team used in the campaign.
*Robin van Persie became the first Feyenoord manager to start with zero goals in his first two games in charge since Václav Jezek in 1978.