IFFHS CONTINENTAL NEWS - UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Picture : Gabriel Jesus (Arsenal) became the first player to score in each of his first 4 Champions League games for an English club.
Statistics on Champions’ League group stage round 5 (November 29)
*Arsenal (vs Lens 6-0) have won a Champions League game with the 6+ goal difference for the 4th time.
Their record is 7-0 vs Slavia in 2007. Other wins with the 6-0 score were achieved vs Braga in 2010 and vs Ludogorets in 2016.
Overall in European competitions, Arsenal have won with the 6+ goal difference for the 8th time.
*Arsenal’s 5-0 lead at halftime vs Lens is the 5th occasion in UCL history with the 5+ goal advantage after the first 45 minutes.
The record belongs to Shakhtar (6-0 away lead vs BATE in 2014, final score 7-0).
Other cases:
Bayern vs Lille in 2012 (5-0, final score 6-1),
Bayern vs Roma in 2014 (5-0, away, final score 7-1),
and again Bayern vs Porto in 2015 (5-0, final score 6-1).
*Arsenal became the first team in the Champions League history to have as many as 5 different scorers (excluding own goals) in the first half of a game.
*Lens suffered the biggest defeat of a French club in an European competition since Bordeaux against Parma in March 1999 in the UEFA Cup (also 0-6).
*Manchester United (vs Galatasaray 3-3) have already conceded 14 goals in this group stage, by far more than anyone else of English participants in UCL after 5 rounds .
Lowest mark before was 11 goals conceded at this point of program by same Manchester United in the season of 1994-95 and by Tottenham in 2019-20.
*Hakim Ziyech (Galatasaray) is the 3rd player to score 2 direct free-kick goals in a Champions League game, after Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) vs Zürich on 15 September 2009 and Neymar (PSG) vs Crvena Zvezda on 3 October 2018.
*Union Berlin (vs Braga 1-1) remain winless in this UCL campaign going to be the 4th German club to close an edition of the tournament without achieving a single victory, after Bayern in 2002-03, Borussia Dortmund in 2017-18 and Hoffenheim in 2018-19.
*Inter (vs Benfica 3-3) is the second visiting team to draw a Champions League match after ending first half with a 3-goal deficit.
The first was Liverpool, on 12 November 2002 (3-3 in Basel).
*Marko Arnautovic (Inter) has scored his first Champions League goal since 7 December 2010 (for Werder vs Inter).
It is the longest ever gap (12 years 357 days) between two goals by a player in the competition's history.
*João Mário (Benfica) is only the second player to score a hat-trick against Inter in Champions League after Gareth Bale (on 20 October 2010 for Tottenham).
*João Mário is the first former Inter player to score a hat-trick against Inter in an official match since 2 April 1961 (Sergio Brighenti's poker for Sampdoria in Serie A).
*João Mário’s hat-trick is 5th earliest in UCL history (made in the first 34 minutes of the game vs Inter).
*Copenhagen (vs Bayern 0-0) put an end to Bayern's historic streak in the UCL group stages (17 consecutive victories) and avoids the Bayern's third consecutive all-win group stage campaign (after they won 6 out of 6 game in both 2021 and 2022).
*PSV (vs Sevilla 3-2) ended their 16-year drought without winning away from home in Champions League.
Their last away win is dated back on 27 November 2007 (1-0 in Moscow against CSKA).
*Sevilla became the second Spanish team to lose a UCL match at home after having a 2-goal lead. The first was Villarreal against Liverpool in the second leg of the 2022 semifinals.
*Sevilla fielded in the game vs PSV the oldest starting line-up in Champions League history (an average age of 32 years 19 days).
The previous record (31 years 331 days) was set by Inter on 22 February 2012 (vs Marseille 0-1).
*Jude Bellingham (vs Napoli 4-2) became the first ever Real Madrid player to score in each of his first 4 UCL games.
*Nico Paz (Real Madrid) became the second youngest (19 years 82 days) Argentinian player to score in Champions League, only behind Lionel Messi, who scored for Barcelona against Panathinaikos in November 2005 at 18 days 131 days.