Cristiano Ronaldo stole the headlines again in the Champions League, but as Manchester United head to a tight finish in their group, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Liverpool, and Ajax have all confirmed their berths in the knockouts with four wins in four. Barcelona are on a mini-recovery after beating Dynamo Kyiv 1-0 again. PSG were held to a 2-2 draw at RB Leipzig, and are now a point behind Manchester City. AC Milan are all but out of Europe after a 1-1 draw against Porto while Inter are a point above surprise package Sheriff (who they beat 3-1 on Wednesday) and two behind Real Madrid in their group. It's been a fun couple of days. By the Numbers brings you the best stats from Matchday 4 of the 2021-22 UEFA Champions League season.
0
For the first time in their history, AC Milan have not won any of their first 4 matches in a UCL season.
2
Atletico Madrid haven't been their usual selves this season in Europe. As epitomised by this stat -- this is the first time ever (in 105 UCL games) that Atletico have conceded two goals in the first half of consecutive UCL games.
2
Karim Benzema is the oldest Real Madrid player (33y 319d) to score more than once in a European Cup/UCL game since the great Ferenc Puskas scored four against Feyenoord in September 1965 (38y 173d).
4
Sebastian Haller is in some form right now. The Ajax centre forward has become only the fifth player in UCL history to score in each of his first four appearances in the competition, after Ze Carlos (1993), Alessandro Del Piero (1995), Diego Costa (2014) and Erling Haaland (2019). He is also one of only three players to score in each matchday this season. The other two? Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski.
4
This is the first time that Liverpool have won their opening 4 UCL group stage games.
4/5
Bayern Munich, meanwhile, have won their first 4 group stage matches five times in the last 12 seasons. No other team has done that more than twice.
11
Atalanta's Duvan Zapata is the first player to score and assist for an Italian side against Manchester United in a UCL game since a certain Ronaldinho, with AC Milan in February 2010, more than 11 years ago
13
RB Leipzig are the first team from Europe's 'top 5' leagues to concede 13 goals in the first four games of the UCL group stage.
17
Leipzig may not be doing well this season, but their former boss certainly is. Julian Nagelsmann's Bayern Munich have scored 17 goals after 4 UCL games, a joint-record alongside PSG in 2017/18.
17
Karim Benzema's 17 multi-goal games in the UCL are exceeded only by Cristiano Ronaldo (38), Lionel Messi (34) and Robert Lewandowski (20).
20
Lewandowski is the first player from Europe's 'top 5' leagues to score 20 goals in all competitions this season. Mohamed Salah is the only other player with 15 goals.
23
Amongst PL sides, only Norwich (28) and Leicester (25) have conceded more goals in all competitions this season than Manchester United (23). And now they have Raphael Varane out injured, again.
25
Liverpool are now unbeaten in 25 matches in all competitions (W18 D7), their joint-longest such run since they joined the Football League in 1893 (they also had a run of 25 in 1982).
1001
Real Madrid are the first team in European Cup/Champions League history to score 1000 goals in the competition (including qualifiers). Benzema's brace saw them end the night on 1001.
Messi Ronaldo watch
2
Cristiano Ronaldo (36y & 270d) is the oldest player to score 2+ goals in a single game for Manchester United in European competition.
4
Ronaldo is the first player to score in four consecutive UCL games for Manchester United since Ruud van Nistelrooy in April 2003 (in a run of nine).
8
With two stoppage time goals on Tuesday, Ronaldo passed Lionel Messi (7) with the most stoppage time goals (8) in UCL history.
20
The second of his two goals was Ronaldo's 20th for Manchester United in the UCL, passing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (19) for 5th in the team's history. Only Ruud van Nistelrooy (35), Wayne Rooney (30), Ryan Giggs (28) and Paul Scholes (24) have more.
(Stats courtesy ESPN's Stats & Information Group)