A day of tough draws and hard-fought victories greeted us on day 1 of matchday 2 of the UEFA Champions League. Bayern Munich squeezed past Lokomotiv Moscow 2-1 away. Liverpool beat Midtjylland 2-0 at home. Manchester City breezed past Marseille 3-0 away. Atletico Madrid saw off RB Salzburg 3-2 at home. Real Madrid and Atalanta both came from 2 goals down to draw Borussia Monchengladbach and Ajax respectively. And Inter drew Shakthar Donetsk away, 0-0.
Here are the best numbers from the night's action:
1
As per ESPN's dataset, this is the first time in the last 11 CL seasons that Real Madrid have avoided defeat after trailing by 2+ goals in the last five minutes of the match -- their goals came in the 87th and 93rd minutes. If they had lost, it would have been the first time ever that they had lost 4 straight European Cup/CL games. The last time they lost three straight (which they have now) was between 1981-'86.
2
This is the second straight season in which Madrid have failed to win the first two matches of a UCL season (1 loss, 1 draw on both instances). Prior to these, Madrid had never gone winless in their first two games in the UCL era (since '92-'93).
2
Casemiro's game-tying goal at 90'+3 for Madrid is the club's second-latest game-tying goal away in a CL game. Only Pedro Leon scored a later goal -- in a 2010-11 group stage at Milan (90'+4).
5
Bayern Munich are the second club to win 5 consecutive away CL games on two separate occasions (Also won 7 in 2013-14). The other? Ajax, with 7 in 1995-97 and 5 in 2018-19.
5
Joao Felix's late winner was his second of the game, and 5th in 8 UCL games for Atletico Madrid. Only Erling Haaland (11) has more goals than Felix among players aged 20 or younger in the last two CL seasons.
7
Shakhtar Donetsk are only the second team in CL history to name starting XI's with as many as seven players aged 21 or younger in consecutive games, after CSKA Moscow in April 1993.
And Shakthar have beaten Real Madrid and drawn Inter -- not too shabby, eh?
10+
Marseille are only the third team in UCL history to go on a streak of 10+ losses. Dinamo Zagreb lost 11 consecutively twice (between 2011-12, and 2015-16), but the record is Anderlecht's, who lost 12 on the trot between 2003-05.
13
On the other end of the streaks spectrum, Bayern Munich have extended their competition-record winning streak to 13 games, dating back to last season. Hansi Flick has been in charge for 10 of them. Which means that Flick has more CL trophies (1) than losses or draws (0, 0).
16
Only two players have scored in 16 consecutive UCL seasons. One's Lionel Messi, and the other -- no, you're thinking about the wrong player with ties to Real Madrid - Karim Benzema. Messi, Benzema and Giggs are the only players to score a tleast one goal in 16 different CL seasons (Giggs did it non-consecutively).
20
Mohammed Salah has now scored 20 UCL goals for Liverpool, 1 goal shy of tying Steven Gerrard for most in the team's CL history.
21
Raheem Sterling has tied Gerrard, though. This, for the for the 4th-most UCL goals scored by an Englishman. That is behind Frank Lampard (23), Paul Scholes (24), and Wayne Rooney (30).
27
Marcus Thuram scored his first career CL goal 27 years after his father Lilian Thuram scored his lone CL goal -- for Monaco on Nov. 24, 1993.
Another Monaco connection for young Marcus - he is just the second French player to score a European Cup brace vs. Real Madrid, after Ludovic Giuly for Monaco in April 2004.
30
Speaking of free scoring Frenchmen, Benzema has tied Robert Lewandowski for the 3rd-most away goals in CL history, with 30. To put that into perspective, Thierry Henry scored a total of 35 CL goals.
Lionel Messi is in second position in this away goals list, with 45. The leader, some way ahead, is Cristiano Ronaldo, with a frankly ridiculous 57.
10000
Diogo Jota's goal was the 10,000th goal Liverpool have scored in their history in all competitions. It comes 128 years after their first, netted by Jock Smith in September 1892 in the Lancashire League. 38 minutes later, Salah made it 10,001.
(Stats courtesy ESPN's Stats & Information Group)