IFFHS CONTINENTAL NEWS - UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Picture : Ángel di María (Benfica) has scored the first “Olympic” goal (directly from a corner kick) in the Champions League since Claudio López did it on 6 March 2001 (for Lazio against Anderlecht).
Statistics on Champions’ League group stage round 6 (December 12)
*Real Madrid, beating Union Berlin 3-2 in their last group stage game, tied Bayern as teams with the most all-win campaigns at this stage. They achieved 6 wins in 6 games three times.
Other teams to make this feat, once for each: Milan, Ajax, Barcelona, Liverpool, PSG and Spartak Moscow.
*Three of these 6 Real Madrid wins have been reached with comebacks (also both vs Napoli, 3-2 and 4-2). In the domestic league, “Los Blancos” also are masters of comebacks (4). So, they have already 7 such wins this season!
*Joselu became the first Real Madrid player of Spanish nationality to score a brace in a Champions League after Sergio Ramos in 2014 against Bayern.
Between these 2 occasions, there were 22 braces by Real Madrid players in UCL matches, all performed by foreigners.
*Carlo Ancelotti beat Miguel Muñoz as the Real Madrid coach with most wins (42 against 41) in European Cup/Champions League (since 1955).
*Luka Modric is the first Real Madrid player to miss a penalty in a Champions League game since Cristiano Ronaldo did it against Ludogorets on 1 October 2014.
It was third penalty that Real Madrid took this season in all competitions; all were failed (also by Rodrygo and Joselu).
*Real Madrid equaled Bayern as the team with the most missed penalties in the UCL history (13 for both). The next are Barcelona (12), Arsenal (10) and Atlético Madrid (9).
*Manchester United (0-1 vs Bayern) have finished bottom of a Champions League group for just the second time, after the similar failure of 2005-06.
In total, an English team finished bottom for the 4th time (also Blackburn Rovers in 1995-96 and Manchester City in 2012-13).
*Manchester United have conceded 15 goals in their group; the most ever by an English team in a single UCL group stage.
*Manchester United have been eliminated from the UCL group stages in 3 of 7 cases after Alex Ferguson era, exactly as many times as they had with him in duty (in 18 seasons).
*Copenhagen (1-0 vs Galatasaray) are the only Danish team to have survived a Champions League group stage; they have promoted to the playoffs for the 2nd time (after 2010-11).
*Benfica (3-1 vs Salzburg) became the 2nd team to enter the Europa League despite losing the first 4 games in a Champions League group stage, after Viktoria Plzen who did so in 2013.
*Sevilla (1-2 vs Lens) became the 5th Spanish team to fail to win a single Champions League group stage match, after Deportivo La Coruña (2004-05), Atletico Madrid (2009-10), Villarreal (2011-12) and Real Sociedad (2013-14).
*Inter (0-0 vs Real Sociedad) finished unbeaten in a Champions League group stage for the 2nd time in their history (after 2004/05).