Stats: Ronaldo and Messi 15 – 28 Haaland and Mbappe

The Champions League is back, and boy is it back with a bang.

Barcelona were defeated at the Camp Nou by a Kylian Mbappe-inspired PSG. Juventus were stunned at Porto. Borussia Dortmund did the stunning in Seville thanks to another wunderkind, Erling Braut Haaland. Liverpool, meanwhile, were clinical in taking apart RB Leipzig away in, er, Budapest.

By The Numbers has the best stats from the first few round-of-16 ties.

1

This is the first time in the UCL era that Barcelona have lost consecutive home matches. It is also the first time that Barcelona have allowed 3 goals in consecutive home matches.

2

This season, two players had braces at the Camp Nou vs. Barcelona (Ronaldo in the group stage, Mbappe with a hat trick in this). This hadn’t happened once in the past 10 UCL seasons.

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3

At 22 years and 58 days, Mbappe is the third youngest player to score a hat trick in the UCL knockout stages. He is also just the third player to score a hat trick at the Camp Nou.

9

Borussia Dortmund have scored nine goals in the first half of this UCL season — tied for the most with Borussia Monchengladbach. Haaland has five of those first-half goals — the most by any player this season.

10

Haaland has scored 10 UCL goals in just seven games for Borussia Dortmund. That is the fastest a player has ever reached 10 goals for a team in the competition, breaking Roy Makaay’s record with Bayern Munich (10 games, between 2003-04).

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12 and 13

12 teams have lost the first leg of a UCL knockout stage series at home by 3+ goals, NONE of them came back to advance. Meanwhile, Barcelona have reached the quarterfinals of the UCL for a record 13 straight seasons entering this season.

One of those records is about to end this season.

18

More Erling Haaland goodness. The Norwegian has scored 18 UCL goals, one shy of… Kylian Mbappe for the most by a player prior to his 21st birthday. The next closest, and it isn’t particularly close, is Karim Benzema who had 12.

Haaland is also just one short of tying Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s record for most goals scored by a Norwegian.

20

PSG have now scored in 20 consecutive UCL away games — only Real Madrid (22 games, 2010-2014) have a longer streak in UCL history.

24

Among all players within the top-five European leagues, only Robert Lewandowski (30) has scored more goals in all competitions this season than Mohamed Salah (24).

41

This UCL season has already seen 41 goals scored by players 20 years or younger. Why is that such a big deal? Well, it’s just two shy of the single-season record set last season.

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63

Mehdi Taremi’s goal for FC Porto vs. Juventus after 63 seconds was the quickest scored in the UCL knockout stages since David Alaba scored for Bayern Munich after 24 seconds in the quarterfinal against Juventus in April 2013.

111

Mbappe has become the third-highest scorer in PSG history, overtaking Pauleta (109). Only Edinson Cavani (200) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (156) have netted more for the club.

15 vs. 28

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have scored 15 UCL goals since the start of the 2019-20 season. Mbappe and Haaland have 28. Is it time we start an ‘Mbappe-Haaland watch’ section around here?

17

Even when Messi loses, a record isn’t all that far away. The little genius has now scored UCL goals in 17 different years (2005-21), tying Raul Gonzalez (1995-11) for the most in UCL history.

20

Messi’s penalty means he has now scored 20 goals in all competitions for a 13th consecutive season.

28

The goal also meant Messi has extended his record of UCL round-of-16 goals to 28 — the most in tournament history. Just behind him is… who else? Ronaldo, with 25, and after a much bigger gap, Thomas Muller and Lewandowski with 12.