Marcus Rashford gets United’s first hat trick since RVP, Lionel Messi hits 70: UCL stats from Matchday 2

The UEFA Champions League Matchday 2 concluded with another set of entertaining games with lots of goals all around. Let’s recap the results: Chelsea beat a slightly-better-than-the-scoreline-suggested Krasnodar away 4-0. PSG beat a much-better-than-the-scoreline-suggested Istanbul Baseksehir 2-0. Dortmund and Sevilla registered solid wins, while Lazio were held to a 1-1 draw at Club Brugge. Manchester United clinically dismantled RB Leipzig 5-0, thanks to a Marcus Rashford hat trick. And in the big one, Barcelona beat Juventus away 2-0, and yes, of course Lionel Messi scored.

Here are the best numbers from the latest round of games:

1

Marcus Rashford’s second half-hat trick boosted the scoreline at Old Trafford. He is the first Manchester United player to score a hat trick in a single half of a CL game. He is the sixth United player to score a hat trick in the CL era (since 1992-93), and the first to do so since Robin Van Persie, back in 2014.

1

Today is the first time in the UCL era that multiple Premier League clubs have won 4-0 or better on the same day (Chelsea and Manchester United) in the competition.

2 Related

2

A stat that would make his manager proud. Rashford is just the second Manchester United player to score a hat trick as a substitute after… Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (remember when he smashed in 4 goals in 20 minutes vs Nottingham Forest in February 1999 in the Premier League?)

2

Mason Greenwood (19 years, 28 days) is the second youngest Manchester United player to score in the UCL after Wayne Rooney. Rooney, on debut, scored a hat trick against Fenerbahce aged 18 years, 339 days.

2

Chelsea are only the second non-German side in CL history to start a match with three German players in their XI (Antonio Rudiger, Kai Havertz and Timo Werner). The first? Arsenal in March 2014 vs FC Bayern Munich (Per Mertesacker, Lukas Podolski and Mesut Özil).

4

Pepe Reina played last night with his 4th different team in the CL, Lazio (also Napoli, Liverpool and Barcelona). Only one goalkeeper has played with more sides in the history of the competition (Morgan De Sanctis with Sevilla, Monaco, Napoli, Udinese, and Roma).

Marcus Rashford (L) is the first Manchester United player since Robin Van Persie to hit a Champions League hat trick. Meanwhile, Lionel Messi (R) now has 70 goals in the UCL group stages alone. Getty Images

4

With his brace in Istanbul, Moise Kean has now scored 4 goals in 4 appearances at PSG. That’s as much as he managed in 37 apps for Everton.

4/5+

Since 2013 – also known around Old Trafford as ‘After Fergie’ — this is only the fourth time that Manchester United have scored 5+ goals in a UEFA competition match (kept a clean sheet in all 4 matches).

6

Mason Greenwood has scored his 6th goal in a major European competition as a teenager. This is tied for most by any Englishman with… Marcus Rashford.

7

There were 7 penalties awarded tonight in the Champions League, the most on a single night of action in the competition since 21 October, 2014 (9). Of the 7, 6 were scored, Jorginho the only one who missed.

12

Erling Haaland now has 12 career CL goals, tied with Karim Benzema for 2nd-most by a player before turning 21 in CL history. The only one who’s scored more before they turned 21? Kylian Mbappe, who had 19.

ESPN Stats and Information Group

13

Al-var-o Morata, who had three goals ruled out for offside against Barcelona, has been caught offside 13 times in the CL since the start of last season. Only Timo Werner (also 13) can match his tally for that period.

13

Christian Pulisic is the 13th different player to score for Chelsea across all competitions this season. They have had the most unique scorers amongst PL teams so far this campaign (excluding own-goals). That variety in attack is beginning to show, eh?.

20 & 243

A rather obscure stat, but… Moise Kean is the youngest ever Italian player to score on his very first CL start at 20 years 243 days old. He overtook Alessandro Del Piero (20y 308d).

27

One more on Marcus Rashford, MBE. He became just the fifth player to score a hat trick as a substitute, with his hat trick coming in the fewest minutes played (27). The other four, (with minutes played), are Kylian Mbappe (38), Walter Pandiani (44), Joseba Llorente (45), Uwe Rosler (52).

Ever since the draw, we’d all be been waiting for this clash. But a COVID-19 infection for Cristiano Ronaldo meant that his showdown with Lionel Messi (their first in the group stages) would have to wait. In the absence of Ronaldo, Messi seized the limelight all for himself.

1

No Ronaldo, no party. Seriously. Juventus have won just 1 of the 4 games they’ve played since Ronaldo tested positive for Covid-19. They have averaged a meagre 1 goal per game in that span.

0 – 7

This is the first time in his playing career that Lionel Messi has failed to score a goal from open play in his first 7 games of a season. All of his last 4 goals have come from the penalty spot – for the first time in his professional career (club and country). In case you were wondering, Ronaldo has never had a run of 4 such goals, where all of them were from the penalty spot.

6/5

None of the above, though, means that Messi is playing poorly. The little genius completed more take-ons (6) and created more chances (5) than any other player on the pitch in Turin on Wednesday night.

35

Messi had an assist to go with his penalty. Since Messi’s first CL campaign in 2004-05, only one player has more assists in the competition than his 35. Cristiano Ronaldo, with 35.

70

Messi has now scored 70 group stage goals. That is the highest any player has ever scored in the group stages in CL history. The next closest is, you guessed it, Ronaldo with 63.

(Stats courtesy ESPN’s Stats & Information Group)