It was raining goals as matchday 1 of the UEFA Champions League concluded on Wednesday with some surprising results. Real Madrid lost 2-3, at home, to a not-even-close-to-full-strength Shakthar Donetsk, Liverpool had a scrappy 1-0 win at Ajax, Manchester City beat Porto 3-1, and Bayern Munich decimated Atletico Madrid 4-0. By The Numbers has the best of the stats from the night's action.
1
This is the first time that Real Madrid have started a UCL season with a loss at home. The dream of winning a 14th UCL title will take some record breaking -- no team that has lost its opener has gone on to win the UCL.
1
This is the first time that Liverpool have won their UCL opener away from home since 2008-09 (They have had 5 straight losses in that time). Bayern Munich, meanwhile, haven't lost a season opener in their last 17 UCL seasons.
3
Shakthar scored all three of their goals in a stunning first-half performance. It is, in fact, only the second time that Real Madrid have trailed by 3 goals at half time in UCL history and the first at home. (The only other time was in Lyon in Sept. 2005, with the game ending 3-0).
3+
Boy, are Atalanta a fun side. They smashed four without reply past Midtjylland away on the night. And the thing is, they do this all the time. In the 5 matches that they have played since the start of this season, they have scored 3+ goals in the first half in 4 of those 5 matches. The lone exception was against Napoli, this past weekend, where they conceded 4 goals in the first half. Like we said, fun.
4-0
The 4-0 loss at Bayern is tied for Atletico's worst margin of defeat in a UCL game (they also lost 4-0 vs Chelsea in 2009-10 and Dortmund in 2018-19).
4/3
There were three 4-goal wins in matchday 1 (Bayern, Atalanta, and Barcelona); only in 2016-17 (4) were there more in the opening round of the UCL group stage.
4/19
This was Bayern Munich's 19th CL win by 4+ goals over the last 10 seasons (since 2011-12). That passes Barcelona (18) for the most by any club during that span. Real Madrid are next closest with 14 such wins.
In addition, this is the 20th time Bayern have scored 4+ goals in a game (all competitions) under Hansi Flick. That's the most of any team in the top 5 European leagues since Flick took charge in November 2019.
7/8
No Ramos, no party. Real Madrid have lost 7 of their last 8 UCL games without Sergio Ramos.
8
Since the start of the 2018-19 season, Manchester City have won 8 CL matches when trailing at any point, including Wednesday. That is more than double any other team during that span. Tottenham have the next most wins with 3. Overall, Man City are 8-1-3 (W-D-L) when trailing at any point in a UCL match since 2018-19.
9
Romelu Lukaku has now scored in each of his last nine games in European competition (10 goals), extending the longest-ever such run by an Inter Milan player.
12
Luis Suárez must hate the sight of Bayern. The Uruguayan has seen his teams concede 12 goals in his last two meetings with the German champions.
15
This comes via Opta -- Vinícius Jr.'s goal, Real Madrid's second, scored 15 seconds after entering as a substitute is the fastest UCL goal scored by a sub since Opta began tracking full data for Champions League goal times in 2006-07.
20
Atalanta is one of 6 teams to score 20+ goals after their first 10 UCL matches. Fun. Only two teams scored more in their first 10 in the CL era -- Juventus (21 goals, 1995-96) and Sevilla (25 goals, 2007-09).
21
Since 2010/11, Manchester City have been awarded 24 penalty kicks in the UCL (tied for second most with Barcelona). Only Bayern Munich have had more in this span, 27.
35
Sergio Aguero has 35 career CL goals with Manchester City (excluding qualifying goals). This is tied for the second most by a player for a single Premier League club, along with Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United) and Thierry Henry (France). The only one who has more than these three? Didier Drogba, who scored 36 UCL goals for Chelsea.
35+
Luka Modric is only the fourth player to score for Real Madrid in the European Cup/Champions League aged 35 or older, after Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas and Paco Gento. Now, that's elite company.
231
Aguero scored his first goal in any competition since March against Sheffield Wednesday, 231 days ago. This gap of 231 days is the longest in between goals in the Argentine's career for club and country, with this his 421st goal.
(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)