Ranking the five players with the most goals in the knockout stage of UCL | UEFA Champions League 2021-22
UEFA Champions League or UCL is the biggest competition in European football. Every season, some of the very best players across the continent go head-to-head with their clubs for continental glory here.
Like any other competition, goals win games in the Champions League but not all goals have the same importance. Goals in the knockout stage of the competition assume greater importance as they could end up deciding the fate of the teams.
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With the round of 16 fixtures for this season commencing on Tuesday, let's take a look at the highest-scoring players in the knockout stages of UCL to date.
#5 Andriy Shevchenko - 18 goals in UCL knockout stage
Karim Benzema, Raul and Andriy Shevchenko are all tied for fifth spot among knockout stage goalscorers with 18 goals. But the Ukrainian striker takes the spot thanks to his superior goals/game ratio (0.56).
Shevchenko enjoyed the best spell of his career with AC Milan. He won the Champions League in the 2002-03 campaign while also finishing as the runners-up in the 2004-05 campaign.
He finished as the top scorer in the competition in his final season with the Serie A club. He scored nine goals in the 2005-06 campaign as the club lost out to Barcelona in the semi-finals. He also made it to the final of the 2007-08 UCL campaign with Chelsea but struggled to find his shooting boots with the English club.
#4 Thomas Muller - 24 goals in UCL knockout stage
Thomas Muller is one of the few one-club players of his generation, having made a name for himself with Bayern Munich. He is well-known for his assist-providing skills but also scored a lot of goals.
He is just one of just eight players to have scored 50 or more goals in the UCL. Thanks to his intelligent runs and positioning, he ends up in good goalscoring positions every now and then.
150 - Since Thomas Müller's Bundesliga debut (15 Aug 2008), only Lionel #Messi (180 assists) has assisted more goals in Europe's big five leagues than the German (150 assists). Space. #KOEFCB https://t.co/VjtOBapePg
One could say that goalscoring is one of the underappreciated aspects of his game. He won the Golden Boot award in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, scoring five goals alongside Wesley Sneijder, David Villa and Diego Forlan.
He has also won the top-scorer's award in the DFB Pokal twice, in the 2010 and 2014 editions. The two-time Champions League winner's consistency has helped him score regularly in the competition, with roughly half of his strikes coming in the knockout stage.