Another enthralling round of UEFA Champions League group stage action, with Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi continuing to break records. The Argentine legend was on the scoresheet for PSG in their draw against Benfica, while Haaland grabbed a brace as Manchester City hammered FC Copenhagen. Chelsea handed AC Milan a heavy 3-0 defeat, with Liverpool also easing past Rangers. Real Madrid edged past Shaktar Donetsk, but it was a terrible UCL round for the other Spanish teams, with Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla all losing.
Bayern Munich continued their excellent, and now record-breaking group stage form at home, hammering Viktoria Plzen 5-0, while Napoli inflicted misery on Ajax with a 6--1 win.
By The Numbers has the best stats from across the competition:
1
Lionel Messi became the first player to score against 40 different opponents in the UEFA Champions League, with Benfica the latest to be added to his list.
6
Messi scored in his 6th straight game in all competitions for club and country. His longest such streak since Dec. 2018-Feb. 2019
10
Cristiano Ronaldo hasn't scored a non-penalty goal for Manchester United in 10 games since his last non-penalty goal on April 28th. Over that span, Lionel Messi has scored 10 non-penalty kick goals for PSG.
Will Messi catch Ronaldo in UCL goals? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/bQABYDljyn
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) October 5, 2022
9
Erling Haaland has scored in 9 straight Premier League and Champions League matches. He is the 4th player to score in 9 consecutive PL/UCL matches, joining Ruud van Nistelrooy (2x), Jamie Vardy and Mohamed Salah.
10
Since Haaland's debut in the UCL (2019) he has 10 multigoal games - joint-most with Robert Lewandowski. He's only the 9th player in Champions League history with at least 10 multi-goal games. Curiously enough, Thierry Henry finished his career with 10 multi-goal games in the Champions League.
28
With his brace against Copenhagen, Haaland passed Rivaldo and Luis Suárez (27) and tied Ryan Giggs at 28 career UCL goals. Only 27 players have score more UCL goals than the Norwegian.
98
Haaland has scored 28 goals in 22 appearances in the UEFA Champions League, a goals per game record of 1.27; there are 98 teams with a worse goals per game record than him in the competition.
Haaland is averaging a goal or assist every 54 minutes in the Champions League 😳 pic.twitter.com/RafnO4VVRI
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) October 5, 2022
35
Mohamed Salah is now 1 goal shy of tying the record for most UCL goals scored by a player representing an English club, having now scored 35 times, with Sergio Aguero and Didier Drogba on 36 goals.
25
Sadio Mané now has 25 career UCL goals, becoming the 4th African player to score 25+ UCL goals after Didier Drogba (44), Mohamed Salah (37) and Samuel Eto'o (30).
19y 98d
Aged 19 years and 98 days, Jude Bellingham became the youngest captain ever to score in a UEFA Champions League match.
1764
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored his first UCL goal since his brace vs Real Madrid back when he played for Dortmund, on Dec. 6, 2017... 1764 days ago.
With its 5-0 win over Viktoria Plzen, Bayern Munich extends its unbeaten streak in the UEFA Champions League Group Stage to 31 games, breaking the #UCL record previously held by Real Madrid (2012-17).
Bayern has outscored opponents 98-21 during the streak. pic.twitter.com/fO77e2Z7sU
- ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 4, 2022
1
Ángel Di María produced his 2nd UCL game with 3 assists over the last 10 seasons. He is the only player with multiple 3-assist games in that span.
26
Sevilla are winless in 5 home games this season in all competitions; that is the club's longest season-opening winless streak in 26 years (also 5 in 1996-97).
6-1
Ajax suffered their heaviest defeat in all competitions since November 1964 (9-4 against Feyenoord in the Eredivisie). Ajax had never conceded 6 goals in a Champions League/European Cup game prior to Tuesday's 6-1 loss to Napoli. It was also Napoli's best margin of victory in their UCL history
(Stats courtesy ESPN's Stats & Information Group)