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Messi's 2 in 160 UCL games, Mbappe's chart-topping 40, Barcelona's nightmare 3/11: Stats

PSG's Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring his team's first goal against Maccabi Haifa. Photo by Harry Langer/DeFodi Images via Getty Images

Matchday 5 of the UEFA Champions League proved decisive in the outcomes of many groups with plenty of upsets taking place. It was a terrible night for LaLiga as both Barcelona and Atletico Madrid failed to qualify for the knockout stage, with the former confirming their UEFA Europa League berth with a 0-3 loss to Bayern Munich. Real Madrid also lost out to RB Leipzig, while Sevilla were the only Spanish team to win this round, albeit being eliminated. Juventus' loss to Benfica also saw them exit the competition, while PSG's big win over Maccabi Haifa put them through to the knockouts. Liverpool and Chelsea notched up crucial wins over Ajax and RB Salzburg respectively to progress, while Manchester City and Tottenham played out draws.

By The Numbers has the best stats from across the competition.


2

Lionel Messi scored two goals and assisted two goals in the same UEFA Champions League game for only the second time in his career. That's 160 games in his career -- the last time he did so was in March 2019 against Lyon.

17

Messi has reached double-digit goals scored in all competitions for the seventeenth consecutive season. SEVENTEEN.

23

Messi's tally of 23 goal involvements this season have come in only sixteen games. Only Erling Haaland has more (25) in Europe's top five leagues, and after the Argentine wizard missed out on the 30-man shortlist for the Ballon d'Or... it's safe to say he's back.

40

If Messi and Haaland have been racking up the numbers, Kylian Mbappe wouldn't be too far behind. If anything, he's ahead -- his tally of 40 goals in 2022 is the most by a player from Europe's top five leagues in all competitions (Lewandowski 37, Nkunku 32, Haaland 32).

3/11

Messi never played in the Europe League in his 17 years at Barcelona. The club have played in it in every year since his departure, with their UCL record in that time period reading three wins from 11 games (two vs Dynamo Kyiv and one vs Viktoria Plzen).

1

Barcelona have been eliminated from the UEFA Champions League group stage in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1997-98 and 1998-99 - under Louis van Gaal.

1

This is the first time since 1998-99 that Spain will not have multiple teams in the UEFA Champions League knockouts (Only eight teams competed in the knockouts in 1998-99, with Real Madrid being the only Spanish club in the knockouts that season).

0

Real Madrid have never been eliminated in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League. They advanced to the knockout stage 27 times in 27 attempts. Their loss to RB Leipzig, however, ended their 16-game unbeaten start to the season.

1

Juventus' 3-4 loss to Benfica saw them eliminated from the group stages for the first time since 2013-14. It's the first time in their UCL history that they have only three points after five games.

150

Liverpool played their 150th Champions League match tonight at Ajax, becoming the fourth English team to reach the mark and the 10th team overall.

6

Mohamed Salah scored his sixth UCL goal this season (tied first with Mbappé); only once has an African player finished as the UCL top scorer (1994-95 - George Weah, with seven goals).

39

Chelsea's 39-game unbeaten streak when scoring first in a UCL game is the longest such streak in the competition since at least 2010-11. 31 Chelsea are also unbeaten in the 31 games when Trevor Chalobah has started for them. 'Unbeaten' is a slight technicality as two were draws that ended in a Liverpool win on penalties.

1

With just two points separating Tottenham and Marseille in Group D, this marks the first occasion of all four teams from a single Champions League group being able to finish first entering the sixth matchday of the competition since 2007-08.

(Stats courtesy ESPN's Stats & Information Group)