This season's Champions League record-breakers
Saturday, December 12, 2015
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Cristiano Ronaldo helped himself to yet more UEFA Champions League records in this group stage, but so did Iker Casillas, Thomas Müller and plenty of clubs: let us explain.
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RONALDO RECORDS
- Cristiano Ronaldo scored a group stage record 11 goals
- Cristiano Ronaldo is now outright top scorer on 88 goals, group stage to final.
MADRID RUN GOES ON
- Real Madrid's 8-0 defeat of Malmö equalled the competition record (set by Rafael Benítez's Liverpool against Beşiktaş in 2007) and was the first game in which two players (Ronaldo and Karim Benzema) got hat-tricks.
- Madrid have stretched their record of getting past the group stage to 19 years in a row, and have never failed to make it in 20 attempts.
- Also making 20th group appearances were Barcelona, Manchester United and Porto.
CASILLAS KEEPS GOING
- Iker Casillas is now outright the player with the most UEFA Champions League appearances on 158; against Chelsea on Wednesday, he moved one ahead of Xavi Hernández on 157 games, including qualifying.
- However, Porto's exit means Casillas has failed to make it past the group stage after 16 successes with Madrid.
NO WAY PAST PARIS
- Paris conceded just one goal, equalling the record: not bad in a group containing Madrid and Ronaldo (who got his 11 goals against the other two teams).
GENT'S BELGIAN FIRST
- Gent are the first Belgian team to reach the knockout phase: although Anderlecht topped their pool in 2000/01, they were knocked out in the old second group stage.
BARCELONA UNBEATABLE
- Barcelona were unbeaten in the group stage for the tenth time, extending their record.
DYNAMO FINALLY DO IT
- Dynamo Kyiv have ended a record run of ten straight group exits stretching back to 1999/2000.
OLYMPIACOS'S UNWANTED MARK
- Olympiacos extended their record total of group exits to 13 after a 3-0 loss at home to Arsenal.
WENGER OVERTAKES SIR ALEX
- With that win in Greece, Arsenal made it 16 group qualifications in a row, all under Arsène Wenger; he therefore moves one ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson, who led Manchester United through the group stage 15 times.
MÜLLER OUTDOES MESSI
- When Bayern beat Olympiacos 4-0, Thomas Müller became the youngest player to record 50 competition wins at the age of 26 years and 72 days, around 14 months younger than Lionel Messi.
ROMA DO JUST ENOUGH
- Roma equalled Zenit's mark from two seasons ago of progressing with six points, the lowest recorded under three points for a win.
- Roma also set a new record of going through despite conceding 16 goals; the previous high was 14. Only one eliminated team (Malmö, 21) let in more this season.
FIVE-STAR SPAIN
- Spain were the first nation to have had five teams in the group stage.
MULTINATIONAL KNOCKOUTS
- Ten nations are represented in the round of 16, the most since the knockout phase was extended in 2003/04.
ALL PLAY-OFFED OUT
- All 16 teams that made it through began the season in the group stage, all ten play-off qualifiers falling for the first time since the current format began in 2009/10.