Matchday two facts and figures
Friday, October 2, 2015
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Franco Di Santo, Matías Fernández and Jan Vertonghen brought up landmarks on matchday two while Club Brugge established a pair of unwanted records.
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• Franco Di Santo's hat-trick for Schalke in their 4-0 victory at home to Asteras Tripolis was the fifth fastest in UEFA Europa League history. His goals in the 28th, 37th and 44th minutes actually displaced from fifth place his team-mate Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who scored a 23-minute treble for the Königsblauen against Viktoria Plzeň in 2012.
• Huntelaar completed the scoring against Asteras to register his 13th UEFA Europa League goal in total. However, he is not the leading marksman among those players taking part in this season's competition. That honour belongs to Fiorentina's Giuseppe Rossi, who struck his 15th UEFA Europa League goal to round off the Viola's 4-0 win at Belenenses. The injury-prone ex-Villarreal forward is now third alone in the all-time list, with just Radamel Falcao (30 goals) and Óscar Cardozo (20) ahead of him.
• Two players made their 40th UEFA Europa League outings on matchday two – Fiorentina's Matías Fernández and Tottenham Hotspur's Jan Vertonghen. Both players remain eight shy of the record appearance tally set last term by Sevilla's Daniel Carriço, but either could become the first to reach a half-century of appearances later in this season's competition – as could Napoli's Dries Mertens, who has 39 games to his name.
• In drawing 1-1 on matchday two, both PAOK (at home to Borussia Dortmund) and Tottenham (at Monaco) matched the record number of draws registered in the UEFA Europa League – 13. Also on that number are PSV and Lazio.
• Club Brugge's surprise 3-1 reverse at home to Danish champions Midtjylland was their 15th UEFA Europa League defeat. One more and they will equal the competition record held by Dinamo Zagreb.
• In losing that game the Belgian club set another unwanted competition record – that of the most goals conceded, which now stands at 56, two more than PSV Eindhoven.
• Victories for all three Serie A clubs on matchday two were accompanied by an aggregate of nine goals – four for Fiorentina, three for Lazio and two for Napoli – which means Italy have moved alongside Germany as the joint-second most prolific nation in UEFA Europa League history, with 279 goals apiece. Top of the pile by some distance are Spain, with 328.
• In putting his team 1-0 up in their 2-0 victory at home to Skënderbeu, Lokomotiv Moskva's Senegalese midfielder Baye Oumar Niasse registered the 3300th UEFA Europa League goal.
• Skënderbeu are one of three newcomers to the UEFA Europa League this season – there are eight in total – who have yet to collect a point, the other two being Groningen and European debutants Augsburg. Three others – Qäbälä, Belenenses and Monaco – have also yet to taste victory. Yet while Sion have taken four points from six, Midtjylland have claimed the maximum, following up their opening 1-0 home win over Legia Warszawa with that 3-1 victory at Club Brugge.
• There are eight clubs overall with six points from their opening two matches, Midtjylland being joined by Napoli, Rapid Wien, Braga, Lokomotiv Moskva, Basel, Schalke and Partizan.