Matchday seven facts and figures
Friday, February 20, 2015
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SSC Napoli matched two competition landmarks; André Villas-Boas, Olexandr Shovkovskiy and Romelu Lukaku racked up milestones. Here's matchday seven in numbers.
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• With his successful penalty for FC Salzburg at Villarreal CF, Jonatan Soriano became the UEFA Europa League's joint-third-highest scorer with 14 goals, alongside Fernando Llorente and Giuseppe Rossi. Only Radamel Falcao (30 goals) and Óscar Cardozo (20) have more.
• Romelu Lukaku – who remains the UEFA Europa League's youngest debutant and goalscorer from his time with RSC Anderlecht – struck the competition's tenth-fastest hat-trick with his 35-minute treble for Everton FC at BSC Young Boys. Six of the top ten have been scored this season.
• Lukaku's was also the 11th hat-trick registered in the competition this term – a record for a UEFA Europa League campaign, group stage to final, the previous highest tally being eight in 2010/11.
• SSC Napoli equalled two competition records with their 4-0 success at Trabzonspor AŞ. It was the joint-biggest away win in the round of 32 (after victories by the same scoreline for Bayer 04 Leverkusen at FC Metalist Kharkiv in 2010/11 and Metalist at Salzburg in 2011/12) and also enabled the Italian team to claim their fourth successive clean sheet in the competition, matching seven other clubs who have achieved that feat.
• In drawing 1-1 at Tottenham Hotspur FC, ACF Fiorentina also equalled a competition record – hitherto belonging solely to Greek side PAOK FC – by avoiding defeat away from home for a ninth consecutive game. Indeed, the Viola have yet to lose on the road in their two UEFA Europa League campaigns.
• Another UEFA Europa League record was matched by FC Dynamo Kyiv as the two red cards incurred in their 2-1 reverse at EA Guingamp took their competition aggregate to eight, a number previously recorded by three other teams – Valencia CF, FC Steaua Bucureşti and Sporting Clube de Portugal.
• In overseeing FC Zenit's 1-0 success at PSV Eindhoven, André Villas-Boas became only the fifth coach to lead three different clubs in the UEFA Europa League, having previously been in charge of FC Porto and Tottenham. The others are Huub Stevens, Rafael Benítez, Juan Carlos Garrido and Ernesto Valverde.
• Dynamo Kyiv goalkeeper Olexandr Shovkovskiy became just the sixth player to appear in the competition in his 40s as he took the field against Guingamp aged 40 years and 48 days. The oldest UEFA Europa League participant is also a goalkeeper, Brad Friedel, who holds the record at 42 years and 173 days.
• Having transferred from the UEFA Champions League after the group stage for the fifth successive season, AFC Ajax are the only side to have played in all six knockout phases of the UEFA Europa League. FC Rubin Kazan, absent this year, figured in each of the last five, while no fewer than seven teams are making their fourth last-32 appearance this term – Napoli, Sporting, Anderlecht, Dynamo Kyiv, PSV, Salzburg and Liverpool FC.
• Just six of the 32 clubs involved this time had never featured in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase prior to this week – Aalborg BK, Feyenoord, Torino FC, Celtic FC, FC Dinamo Moskva and Guingamp. The French outfit were the only one of the six to mark their debut with a victory, while the Danish champions were the only side to lose.