IFFHS CONTINENTAL NEWS - UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Picture : Rasmus Højlund (Manchester United) became the first Danish player to score a goal in UCL against a Danish team.
Statistics on Champions’ League group stage round 4 (November 8)
*After 4 rounds, 6 teams have already qualified for the Champions League knockout stage: Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Bayern München, RB Leipzig, Manchester City and Inter.
*Real Madrid has overcome 32 of 32 Champions League group stages. Of all the clubs with a minimum of 3 group stages played in the top European competition, “Los Blancos” are the only one with 100% success.
*Real Madrid are the team to pass a Champions League group stage the most times with 2 matchdays in advance (13). The next are Bayern (12), Barcelona (10), Manchester City (7), Juventus (7).
*Real Madrid goalkeepers have saved 3 of their last 4 penalties in UCL games; 2 of them by Thibaut Courtois and now 1 by Andriy Lunin, vs Braga (3-0).
Curiously, they failed to save any of their previous 19 attempts (excluding shootouts).
*Carlo Ancelotti, the Real Madrid coach, has just surpassed Alex Ferguson to become the coach with the most victories (116 against 115) in the history of the European Cup & Champions League.
*Manchester United for the first time lost a Champions League match (3-4 vs Copenhagen) in which they led by 2+ goals.
In all competitions, they suffered such defeat (after taking a two-goal lead) last in September 2014 (3-5 vs Leicester).
*Manchester United have already lost 9 of their opening 17 matches of the season in all competitions; for the first time so many since the season of 1973-74 when they were relegated from the English top division.
*Manchester United became the first team in UCL history to give away a penalty in each of their starting games of a season.
*Marcus Rashford got his 2nd red card with Manchester United (in 374 games in all competitions); the only previous was in September 2018 vs Burnley.
*Two Manchester United players (Casemiro and Rashford) have been sent off in the same Champions League group stage for the first time since the 2005-06 season (Rooney and Scholes).
*Hojlund is prolific in Champions League games (5 goals in 4 games) while still waiting for his first goal in national competitions (10 games without goals so far, 8 in the Premier League and 2 in the League Cup).
*Bayern (2-1 vs Galatasaray) continue to increase their records in UCL: 17 consecutive victories and 38 games in a row without losing in group stages.
*PSV (1-0 vs Lens) have finally stop their series of 16 consecutive games in the Champions League without winning (7 draws and 9 losses). He have last won in December 2015.
It was not only their worst streak in history, but that of any Dutch team in the competition.