Ranking the 5 highest-scoring UEFA Champions League Round of 16 ties
The UEFA Champions League is conceivably the most significant piece of silverware a professional footballer can achieve at the club football level. Round of 16 is the preliminary phase of the Champions League's knockout stages, which is contested over two legs with each team playing home and away.
The winners of one group play against the runners-up of another group, and thus the entire Round of 16 matchups are devised. Football clubs who were in the same group before cannot be drawn against one another in this round.
The away goal rule has been scrapped since the 2021-22 season. According to it, the team with more away goals progressed to the next round in case of a draw over two legs.
UEFA Champions League's Round of 16 has always given historic European scorelines over the years
With teams coming after a break after the group stages, the Round of 16 gets to see some good attacking football. They give it their all and hence, we see a lot of goals being scored at this stage.
With each tie involving at least a monstrous number of 12 goals on this list, let’s take a look at the five highest-scoring Round of 16 ties:
#5 AS Monaco 6-6 Manchester City (2016-17)
The only matchup on the list where both teams shared the same number of goals, this thrilling encounter occurred in the 2016-17 season. Manchester City crashed out on the away goal rule in a tie that arguably introduced the brilliance of young phenomenon Kylian Mbappe to the world.
Kylian Mbappé's game by numbers vs. Man City:
86% pass accuracy
3 shots
2 shots on target
1 goal
Star. ⭐️ https://t.co/ent6eJB86p
After a nervy 5-3 victory in the home leg, City blew away their two-goal advantage in a very frantic first-half display at the Stade Louis II. The Monaco-based club progressed to the competition's quarter-finals and maintained their astonishingly good run of form in the next round. They dominated Borussia Dortmund and won 6-3 on aggregate.
#4 Bayern Munich 10-2 Arsenal (2016-17)
This is the first of Bayern Munich's two appearances on this list. The German juggernaut demolished Arsenal over two legs in the 2016-17 edition of the competition. The North London club lost 5-1 in both home and away territory, labeling their seventh defeat in 12 matches against the Bavarians.
Arsenal's 10-2 defeat to Bayern Munich is the worst defeat by an English club in Champions League history. https://t.co/XMeh9BPKyO
Both Thiago Alcantara and Arturo Vidal scored braces in this tie in the first and second leg, respectively. The Bundesliga champions later got eliminated in the next round at the hands of Real Madrid. The Spanish club then went on to win the competition for a record 12th time.