IFFHS CONTINENTAL NEWS - EUROPE
Picture : Sadio Mané was the man of the match yesterday in München !
Statistics on Champions’ League group stage round 3 (October 4)
*Bayern Munich, defeating Viktoria Plzen (5-0), repeated the record of Champions League for the number of wins in a row (10) at group stage. The series began in the 2020-21 season, when Bayern beat Lokomotiv Moscow (2-0) in the 6th matchday.
After that, they won all 6 group stage games in 2021-22 (vs Barcelona 3-0, 3-0, Dynamo Kiev 5-0, 2-1, Benfica 4-0, 5-2) and all 3 of this season so far (including vs Inter 2-0 and Barcelona 2-0).
*Also Bayern (2-0 vs Barcelona) set a new Champions League record for the longest run of consecutive matches without losing in group stage – 31 (28 wins and 3 draws), surpassing Real Madrid streak of 30 games between 2012 and 2017.
*Sadio Mané (Bayern) has scored the goal number 9,500 in the history of the Champions League.
*Barcelona (0-1 vs Inter) have lost 2 of their opening 3 UCL matches for the 4th time (previously in 1997-98, 2000-01, 2021-22). They have never yet progressed from the (first) group phase in this situation.
*Ajax (1-6 vs Napoli) have conceded so much in a game of a major European competition for the first time in the club history. Their previous worst point was 1-5 defeat from Bayern at 2nd round of 1980-81 European Cup.
*At the same time, Napoli became the first Italian team to score 6 goals in away UCL game.
*Carl Hoefkens (Club Brugge) became the 5th coach in Champions League history to win all his first 3 matches (vs Bayer 1-0, vs Porto 4-0, vs Atletico 2-0).
From 4 previous such cases, the coach in consideration finished as a champion in 3 (Guardiola, Di Matteo, Flick) and as a runner-up in 1 (Simeone).
*Antoine Griezmann (Atletico) hit the crossbar from penalty vs Porto; he did it already for 3rd time a Champions League game (also vs Real Madrid on 28 May 2016 and vs Bayern on 28 September 2016).
Overall, there are 15 cases of hitting the crossbar from penalty in the whole history of Champions League. No other player did it more than once.