Records, milestones, key stats and facts from Champions League Matchday 3
Yet another round of Champions League matches were played on Tuesday and Wednesday night with the biggest highlight of the matches being Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Bayern Munich. At the halfway mark of the group stages, no team is neither assured of topping the group yet nor is qualification to the knockout stages assured.
As with every round of matches, this round also saw a number of new records set by players and clubs alike while others set personal milestones over the course of the two nights. We look at some of the notable achievements after matchday 3 in the Champions League.
PSG 0-0 Real Madrid
Both teams were undefeated and yet to concede in the UCL this season and it stayed that way after the final whistle. The clean sheet meant this was the first time in 41 games that Real Madrid had failed to score in the group stages. 40 consecutive games is a record in UCL history.
Real Madrid also tied the record for the most number of consecutive group stage matches without losing – 18. They are tied with Barcelona who set the record in 2012.
Keylor Navas became only the second goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet in his first 5 UCL matches after Miguel Angel Moya.
Sergio Ramos’s yellow card was his 29th in the UCL – he is now tied with AC Milan legend Gennaro Gattuso. But they are both behind perennially booked players like Paul Scholes and Xabi Alonso.
Cristiano Ronaldo has only scored twice from his last 89 free kicks in all competitions for Real Madrid.
CSKA Moscow 1-1 Manchester United
Manchester United have won only one match against Russian clubs in the UCL. In eight games, they have drawn six times and won just once.
Anthony Martial’s equaliser was his first Champions League goal after exactly 11 hours on the pitch. It was his 5th goal in 9 matches. In contrast, 19-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo needed 39 matches to score 5 goals.
Seydou Doumbia loves scoring against English opposition. The Ivorian forward has now scored six goals in five games against English clubs. Five of those goals were scored against Manchester City.
Doumbia also tied Ruud van Nistelrooy for taking the least number of matches to score 13 goals. He has done it in 18 games. In contrast, Lionel Messi took 26 games, Raul took 31 while Ronaldo needed 49 games! Jackson Martinez was also quicker than these three, taking 25 games.
Vasili Berezutski and Aleksei Berezutski are only the second pair of twins substituting each other after Rafael da Silva was substituted for brother Fabio at Manchester United in 2011.
Arsenal 2-0 Bayern Munich
Arsenal were in danger of losing their third consecutive game in the Champions League after losing to Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiacos. After the win, they have still never lost three consecutive UCL games.
Theo Walcott made his 50th Champions League appearance for the Gunners. In doing so, he became the 8th player to make 50 appearances for Arsenal.
Mesut Ozil’s goal in the 94th minute was his second against Bayern Munich in the Champions League. The only other German player to score twice against Bayern in the competition is Lukas Podolski.
All of Olivier Giroud’s last 4 goals have been scored when he came on as a substitute.
BATE Borisov 0-2 Barcelona
This was the first time in 13 years that Barcelona played a match without Victor Valdes, Carles Puyol, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi without having secured qualification first.
Ivan Rakitic became only the third Barcelona player to grab a brace in the UCL after Messi (against Shakhtar Donetsk) and Cristian Tello (against Bayer Leverkusen).
BATE Borisov have now conceded a goal in 21 consecutive UCL games. The record is 24 goals, held by Spartak Moscow. CSKA Moscow conceded in 20 consecutive matches while PSV Eindhoven conceded in 18 straight UCL games.
Other matches
Iker Casillas now holds the record for the most clean sheets in full matches played. He was tied with Edwin Van der Sar on 50 before Porto beat Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0.
| # | PLAYER | CLUB | CLEAN SHEETS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iker Casillas | Real Madrid and Porto | 51 |
| 2 | Edwin Van der Sar | Ajax, Juventus and Man Utd | 50 |
| 3 | Petr Cech | Sparta Prague, Chelsea and Arsenal | 46 |
| 4 | Victor Valdes | Barcelona | 45 |
| 5 | Gianluigi Buffon | Juventus | 38 |
37-year-old goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon became the player to have played the most minutes for Juventus in their entire history, totalling 48,885 minutes in all competitions.
Benfica’s Nicolas Gaitan scored the fastest goal of the UCL season when he scored in 74 seconds against Galatasaray. He also became the first Benfica player to score in each of the first three group stage matches.
Lukas Podolski scored Galatasaray’s winner in the 2-1 win and became the fourth German player to score for three clubs in the UCL (Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Galatasaray). The other players were Michael Ballack (Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich and Chelsea), Torsten Frings (Werder Bremen, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich) and Hans-Jorg Butt (Hamburg, Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich)
Interestingly, Butt has scored three penalties against the same opponent in the UCL – Juventus!
Shakhtar Donetsk manager Mircea Lucescu became only the fifth manager to lead a side in 100 UCL matches. The other managers who crossed the 100 mark were Sir Alex Ferguson (190), Arsene Wenger (171*), Carlo Ancelotti (142) and Jose Mourinho (130*).
Porto’s 18-year-old midfielder Ruben Neves became the youngest player to captain a side in the UCL and only the first teenager to do so (18 years and 221 days old). He broke Rafael Van der Vaart’s record of 20 years 217 days for Ajax.
| # | PLAYER | CLUB | AGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ruben Neves | FC Porto | 18 years 221 days |
| 2 | Rafael Van der Vaart | AFC Ajax | 20 years 217 days |
| 3 | Igor Akinfeev | CSKA Moscow | 20 years 330 days |
| 4 | Dmytro Chygrynskiy | Shakhtar Donetsk | 20 years 348 days |
| 5 | Wayne Rooney | Manchester United | 20 years 358 days |
Mexican forward Javier Chicharito Hernandez became only the second player from the CONCACAF region to score 10 goals in the Champions League. Only Dwight Yorke (Trinidad and Tobago) has more – 11 goals with Manchester United.
All stats via Mister Chiping, Opta and Infostrada