Champions League penalties: Who has scored the most, top conversion rates, shoot-outs and who leads the way in 2022/23
Thursday, December 1, 2022
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Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski are out in front, but in 2022/23 Porto have been the spot-kick masters.
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Who has scored the most Champions League penalties?
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have scored more Champions League penalties than anybody, but Robert Lewandowski lurks close behind. Ronaldo converted 19 over the course of his career for Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus, including an unbroken run of 13 conversions dating back to October 2014.
Messi is just one behind on 18 but he has taken one more (23 versus 22), and has missed two of his last four attempts. Lewandowski has scored 16 out of 17, with Benfica's Odysseas Vlachodimos the only man to deny him in what was the striker's 100th Champions League appearance. It did not spoil his evening, though: the Poland striker went on to complete a hat-trick.
Most Champions League penalties scored
19 Cristiano Ronaldo
18 Lionel Messi
16 Robert Lewandowski
11 Sergio Agüero
10 Luís Figo
9 Ruud van Nistelrooy
8 Thomas Muller
7 Jorginho
Who has the best penalty conversion rate in the Champions League?
Robert Lewandowski converted his first 14 Champions League penalties (meaning he just edges Cristiano Ronaldo for the longest scoring streak), but by blotting his copy book against Benfica he lost his 100% record.
The best return now belongs to Timo Werner, who has registered six out of six for Leipzig and Chelsea. Erling Haaland is lurking, though, having so far managed three out of three, which is identical to the records of Karim Benzema. Kylian Mbappé has scored three and missed one to date.
Best Champions League penalty conversion rates (min. five pens)
100% Timo Werner (6/6)
100% Cesc Fàbregas (5/5)
100% Kaká (5/5)
Who has missed the most Champions League penalties?
Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi share the record for most failures from the spot in the Champions League. Messi's five misses came in the course of 23 attempts (a 78% conversion rate), while Henry's five came from just eight attempts (38%).
Most Champions League penalty misses
5 Thierry Henry
5 Lionel Messi
4 Sergio Agüero
4 Ruud van Nistelrooy
How many Champions League penalties have there been in 2022/23?
Officials have awarded 38 penalties in the Champions League this season, with 71% converted, 24% saved and 5% missed. Porto have been particularly impressive, converting three of out three while at the other end the Dragons' Diogo Costa has kept out three of the four spot kicks he has faced. Napoli (3/5) and Manchester City (1/3) have both missed two penalties.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, have extended their run of successful conversions to 24 Champions League penalties. The Merengues' last miss came on 1 October 2014, when Ludogorets' Vladislav Stoyanov denied Cristiano Ronaldo.
2022/23 Champions League penalties
Penalties awarded: 39
Penalties converted: 28
Penalties saved: 9
Penalties missed: 2
Most penalties scored in 2022/23
3 João Mário (Benfica)
2 Mehdi Taremi (Porto)
2 Olivier Giroud (AC Milan)
2 Rodrygo (Real Madrid)
Most penalty saves in 2022/23
3 Diogo Costa (Porto) vs Noa Lang, Patrik Schick, Kerem Demirbay
1 Allan McGregor (Rangers) vs Piotr Zieliński
1 Kamil Grabara (Copenhagen) vs Riyad Mahrez
1 Lukas Hradecky (Leverkusen) vs Yannick Carrasco
1 Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid) vs Josip Juranović
1 Alisson Becker (Liverpool) vs Victor Osimhen
1 Gregor Kobel (Dortmund) vs Riyad Mahrez
Penalty misses in 2022/23
Antoine Griezmann (Atlético vs Club Brugge)
Harry Kane (Tottenham vs Frankfurt)
2022/23 penalties by club
3/3 Benfica
3/3 Real Madrid
3/3 Porto
3/5 Napoli
2/2 AC Milan
1/1 Ajax
1/1 Inter
1/1 Liverpool
1/1 Paris
1/1 Chelsea
1/1 Marseille
1/1 Frankfurt
1/1 Maccabi Haifa
1/1 Salzburg
1/1 Plzeň
1/1 Rangers
1/2 Club Brugge
1/2 Tottenham
1/3 Man City
0/1 Celtic
0/2 Atlético
0/2 Leverkusen
How many players have scored two penalties in one match?
Twenty-three players have scored two penalties in a single Champions League match, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Jorginho the only men to do it twice. Nobody has yet managed a hat-trick of spot kicks.
Ronaldo's penalties against Shakhtar in 2015 came in the space of nine second-half minutes – he went the same way (left) each time. Nabil Bentaleb is the only man to score two penalties in a game and still finish on the losing side – for Schalke against Manchester City in 2019.
12/10/2022 Mehdi Taremi (Club Brugge 0-3 Porto)
08/03/2022 Robert Lewandowski (Bayern 7-1 Salzburg)
20/10/2021 Jorginho (Chelsea 4-0 Malmö)
29/09/2021 Karim Adeyemi (Salzburg 2-1 LOSC)
09/12/2020 Cristiano Ronaldo (Barcelona 0-3 Juventus)
01/12/2020 Dimitri Payet (Marseille 2-1 Olympiacos)
04/11/2020 Timo Werner (Chelsea 3-0 Rennes)
10/03/2020 Josip Iličić (Valencia 3-4 Atalanta)
05/11/2019 Jorginho (Chelsea 4-4 Ajax)
20/02/2019 Nabil Bentaleb (Schalke 2-3 Man City)
07/11/2018 Gabriel Jesus (Man City 6-0 Shakhtar)
19/09/2018 Miralem Pjanić (Valencia 0-2 Juventus)
15/09/2015 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid 4-0 Shakhtar)
21/10/2014 Luiz Adriano (BATE 0-7 Shakhtar)
27/11/2013 Arturo Vidal (Juventus 3-1 Copenhagen)
03/04/2012 Lionel Messi (Barcelona 3-1 Milan)
18/10/2011 Wayne Rooney (Oţelul Galaţi 0-2 Man United)
29/09/2010 Roman Pavlyuchenko (Tottenham 4-1 Twente)
23/11/2005 Levan Kobiashvili (Schalke 3-0 PSV)
20/10/1999 Vladimír Labant (Willem II 3-4 Sparta Praha)
15/09/1999 Andrei Tikhonov (Willem II 1-3 Spartak Moskva)
01/04/1998 Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus 4-1 Monaco)
22/10/1997 Davor Šuker (Real Madrid 5-1 Olympiacos)
Most Champions League penalties converted on one night
8 21/10/2014, Matchday 3 (5 games)
Most Champions League penalties converted on a matchday
10 28–29/10/2010, Matchday 3 (7 games)
There were penalties in nine of the 16 games on Matchday 5 in 2016/17.
Who scored the first Champions League penalty?
Marco van Basten (Milan 4-0 IFK Göteborg, 25/11/1992)
Quickest Champions League penalties
1:45 Johan Micoud (Bremen 5-1 Panathinaikos, 07/12/2005)
2:08 Gaizka Mendieta (Bayern 1-1 Valencia, 23/05/2001)
Mendieta's strike came in the 2001 title decider, known as the "All-penalty final". Mehmet Scholl had a spot kick saved five minutes later before Stefan Effenberg's equaliser early in the second half, also a penalty. It was, of course, decided in a shoot-out, Bayern winning 5-4 in sudden death.
Has a goalkeeper ever scored a Champions League penalty in regulation time?
Two goalkeepers have scored Champions League penalties: Hans-Jörg Butt and Vincent Enyeama. Butt, who once registered nine in a single Bundesliga season, converted three Champions League penalties over the years for Hamburg, Leverkusen and Bayern – all, remarkably, against Juventus (versus Edwin van der Sar, Gianluigi Buffon and Buffon again!).
Hans-Jörg Butt (Hamburg 4-4 Juventus, 13/09/2000)
Hans-Jörg Butt (Leverkusen 3-1 Juventus, 12/03/2002)
Hans-Jörg Butt (Juventus 1-4 Bayern, 08/12/2009)
Vincent Enyeama (Hapoel Tel-Aviv 1-3 Lyon, 29/09/2010)
How many Champions League penalty shoot-outs have there been?
There have been 16 Champions League penalty shoot-outs over the years, but the last one came over six years ago when Real Madrid edged out Atlético in the 2016 final. Six last-16 ties have gone to spot kicks, as have a solitary quarter-final, two semi-finals and seven finals.
The longest Champions League shoot-outs involved 16 penalties, and have happened twice: Arsenal's 7-6 triumph over Roma in 2009 and Atlético's 8-7 win against PSV when there were 14 converted before Luciano Narsingh missed. Manuel Neuer is the only goalkeeper to win two shoot-outs (for Schalke in 2008 and Bayern in 2012).
28/05/2016 Real Madrid 5-3 Atlético (final)
15/03/2016 Atlético 8-7 PSV (round of 16)
17/03/2015 Atlético 3-2 Leverkusen (round of 16)
19/05/2012 Bayern 3-4 Chelsea (final)
25/04/2012 Real Madrid 1-3 Bayern (semi-final)
07/03/2012 APOEL 4-3 Lyon (round of 16)
11/03/2009 Roma 6-7 Arsenal (round of 16)
21/05/2008 Man United 6-5 Chelsea (final)
05/03/2008 Porto 1-4 Schalke (round of 16)
04/03/2008 Sevilla 2-3 Fenerbahçe (round of 16)
01/05/2007 Liverpool 4-1 Chelsea (semi-final)
25/05/2005 Milan 2-3 Liverpool (final)
13/04/2005 PSV 4-2 Lyon (quarter-final)
28/05/2003 Juventus 2-3 Milan (final)
23/05/2001 Bayern 5-4 Valencia (final)
22/05/1996 Ajax 2-4 Juventus (final)
Most penalty shoot-out wins
2= Bayern
2= Liverpool
2= Atlético
Most penalty shoot-out defeats
2= Chelsea
2= Lyon