13 incredible stats from the opening games of the 2018/19 Champions League season

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The Champions League group stages kicked off with a bang on Tuesday night with goals, late drama and a host of pulsating ties.

In the early kick-offs, Tottenham looked to have come away from the San Siro with an impressive 1-0 win before pressing the self-destruct button in a way only Spurs can, coming away with a 2-1 defeat against Inter Milan, while Lionel Messi put PSV to the sword, scoring another hat-trick.

Later on, Liverpool got off to a trademark blistering start against PSG and eventually ran out 3-2 winners over the French champions in a blockbuster battle between two of the world’s strongest forward lines.

Across Europe, there were records being broken and mind-blowing stats being thrown up and, here at Squawka, we have compiled 13 of them, just for you.

1. Champions League legend

(Photo by Carlos Rodrigues/Getty Images)

Lining up for Porto against FC Schalke, Iker Casillas became the first player to play in 20 Uefa Champions League seasons, surpassing Ryan Giggs’ record of 19. Despite not sporting the Welshman’s glorious chest hair, Casillas also outshines Giggs in that time in terms of titles, with three European crowns to Giggs’ two.

2. Home Comforts

(Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

Barcelona have now avoided an opening game defeat in the Champions League in 19 consecutive seasons, dating back to a 3-2 defeat to Newcastle United at St James’ Park in 1997/98. Who delivered the goods for the Magpies that day? None other than the cult figure of Faustino Asprilla, bagging a famous hat-trick.

3. G.O.A.T?

Lionel Messi has scored more hat-tricks (8) than any other player in Champions League/European Cup history. Even if Ronaldo has run off to Italy, Messi still won’t let him keep all the records. The rivalry continues…?

4. Flying the nest

(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

They’re both managers that pride themselves on gung-ho football and, being honest, they’re both absolutely off their rockers. And now, Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel have become the first German managers to face each other with foreign teams in Champions League history.

5. Iceman

James Milner’s penalty against PSG meant that his last 10 goals have all been from the spot, his last goal from open play was against Manchester City in 2016. Let’s hope he’s been giving pointers to Jordan Henderson after his World Cup penalty miss…

6. Rinse and defeat

Tottenham’s defeat to Inter Milan consigned Mauricio Pochettino to a third consecutive defeat for the first time as Spurs manager. We’re still unsure if Head and Shoulders will be taking this as their latest marketing campaign.

7. The fox leaves the box

Mauro Icardi scored his first ever Champions League goal from outside the box, after scoring 29 goals in all competitions for Inter last season from inside the box. It was one hell of an introduction to the competition, especially considering he did a grand total of nothing for the 84 minutes that preceded that wonder-strike.

8. Blazing a trail

Jadon Sancho is the youngest English player to make his Champions League debut for a foreign club in the competition’s history: 18 years and 177 days old. Surely it is only a matter of time before he gets a phone call from Gareth Southgate?

9. A glorious comeback 

(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Lining up against PSG, Daniel Sturridge started a Champions League game for the first time since March 2012 vs Napoli – 2379 days ago – and capped the occasion with a goal after just half-an-hour, treating us all to another rendition of ‘that’ cringe-inducing dance.

10. Sharing is caring

(Photo by Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images)

Jose Callejon created seven goalscoring chances for his Napoli teammates during their tie with Red Star Belgrade, a club record for a single Champions League game, with them converting a grand total of… none. What a nice guy.

11. King Kylian keeps on killing it

At just 19 years and 273 days old, Kylian Mbappé is the youngest player ever to score a Champions League goal at Anfield. With all those years still ahead of him, Messi and Ronaldo must be frantically searching for places to hide their Champions League records.

12. A new legend in the making?


Roberto Firmino has now scored 12 Champions League goals for Liverpool (incl. qualifying), Steven Gerrard (30) is the only player in Liverpool’s history with more. Only a legend lies ahead, but ‘Bobby’ has a long way to go yet.

13. A terrifying trio

(Photo credit FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)

With Mohamed Salah on 46 goals, Roberto Firmino bagging 30 and Sadio Mané netting 24, Liverpool’s front three have now scored 100 goals combined across all competitions since the start of last season. Can anybody stop them?

The post 13 incredible stats from the opening games of the 2018/19 Champions League season appeared first on Squawka News.



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