(FIFA) –
43
years and one month was the age at which Richard Pellejero became comfortably the oldest marksman in Copa Sudamericana history with a brace in Cerro’s 3-1 win over UTC. The midfielder knocked Diego Scotti (41), Rogerio Ceni (39) and Rivaldo (39) down a spot from first, second and third respectively.
25
goals in his last 23 appearances against English opposition is what Lionel Messi made it with a double against Liverpool. It took the 31-year-old on to 600 goals for Barcelona, 14 years to the day after his maiden goal for the club. Messi has now scored 26 times against English clubs in the UEFA Champions League, equalling Cristiano Ronaldo’s record for goals against a specific country (Germany).
18
editions is what it took Spain to become just the seventh nation to earn representation in a UEFA Women’s Champions League final, courtesy of Barcelona’s elimination of Bayern Munich. It emulates Germany (15 representations), France (10), Sweden (7), Denmark (1), England (1) and Russia (1). Barça France 2019-bound goalkeeper Sandra Panos has now gone 11 hours without conceding in the competition.
12
successive victories was the all-time Liga MX record Leon surprisingly lost at Guadalajara, who ended a run of six straight defeats. Curiously, Ignacio Ambriz’s men failed to win any of their first four matches in the Clausura, before Luis Montes, Joel Campbell, Jean Meneses, Angel Mena, Jose Macias and Co embarked on the sequence which eclipsed the ten-game winning record Cruz Azul set in 1972.
10
goals for three clubs in three consecutive Bundesliga campaigns is what Serge Gnbary, who got 11 for Werder Bremen in 2016/17 and ten for Hoffenheim last season, became only the third player to crack after reaching double figures for Bayern Munich. Erwin Kostedde and Jurgen Wegmann managed it in the 1970s and ‘80s respectively.
10
players incredibly got a goal or an assist in Lille’s 5-0 win over Nimes, making it the first Ligue 1 match this century to have double figures in scorers and assisters. Lille netted more than four goals in back-to-back home game for the first time since Yvon Douis inspired the feat in the same year in which he netted in France’s pulsating 6-3 win over West Germany at Sweden 1958.
8
goals is what Roma’s Aleksandar Kolarov has scored in the 2018/19 Serie A – the most a foreign defender has netted in a season since Lazio’s free-kick wizard Sinisa Mihajlovic got the same figure in 1998/99.
5
teams have now won all their knockout-stage away games in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League campaign after Ajax emulated Real Madrid in 1961/62, Liverpool in 1983/84, Bayern Munich in 2012/13, and Real Madrid in 2017/18. The four-time European champions’ marksman in a 1-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur, Donny van de Beek, wasn’t even born the last time they won the first leg of any knockout-stage tie in the competition in 1996, when Edgar Davids and Patrick Kluivert earned a 2-0 victory at Borussia Dortmund.
3.13
goals per game is what the 2018/19 A-League averaged to set, by merely 0.1, a new record for a regular season. Fijian Roy Krishna ensured the last six Golden Boot awards have gone to six different nationalities, with Brazilian Bobo, Australian, Jamie Maclaren, Kosovan Besart Berisha, Uruguayan Bruno Fornaroli and Austrian Marc Janko collecting it in the preceding campaigns.
2
clubs is what Diego Alonso became the first coach to win the Concacaf Champions League with by masterminding Monterrey’s 2-1 aggregate victory over fierce rivals Tigres. The former Uruguay forward guided Pachuca to glory in 2017. Goalkeeper Marcelo Barovero joined an elite bracket of players to have won the Copa Libertadores and Concacaf Champions League, having helped beat Tigres in both finals, the first with River Plate in 2015.
