One goal which beggars belief and another that followed passes galore feature in FIFA.com’slatest stats review, along with records for some exhilarating Germans and some invincible Spaniards.
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metres was the distance from which Alejandro Camargo scored a gobsmacking volley for Universidad de Concepcion on Sunday. When O’Higgins goalkeeper Miguel Pinto punted the ball into the opposition half, the Argentina-born midfielder employed extraordinary technique to lob him with a first-time strike. Amazingly, the ball travelled 100 metres without touching the floor, between leaving Pinto’s boot and crossing his line. The goal sealed a 3-1 success that gave U de Conce their first win in ten attempts in all competitions – they had lost eight and drawn one of their previous nine – and lifted them off the foot of the Torneo Apertura table. “The coach told us Pinto was always playing off his line, so I closed my eyes and hit it,” said Camargo afterwards.
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matches unbeaten in all competitions is the club-record run Real Madrid equalled on Wednesday. Bernd Schuster, Michel, Emilio Butragueno, Hugo Sanchez and Co had gone the same number without defeat until a 2-0 loss to Celta Vigo in 1989. Zinedine Zidane’s team tied the landmark with a 2-2 draw at home to Borussia Dortmund. Karim Benzema’s brace in that game made him just the sixth player to reach 50 goals in European Cup/Champions League history, after Cristiano Ronaldo (95), Lionel Messi (93), Raul (71), Ruud van Nistelrooy (56) and Thierry Henry (50). The 28-year-old former Lyon striker is one of only two men to have netted in each of the last 12 UEFA Champions League campaigns, with Messi being the other.
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passes is what Arsenal made without a Basel player touching the ball in the build-up to Lucas Perez’s second goal on Tuesday – more than any other in this season’s Champions League. The Gunners held possession for one minute and 38 eight seconds before it crossed the line, while Gabriel was their only outfield player not involved in the move. Perez went on to become the first Spanish player to score a hat-trick on his maiden Champions League start, and the sixth Arsenal player to hit a treble in the competition after Thierry Henry, Nicklas Bendtner, Danny Welbeck, Olivier Giroud and Mesut Ozil. Three days earlier, Alexis Sanchez took merely 14 minutes against West Ham United to register the third-quickest hat-trick by an Arsenal player in the English Premier League. The only faster ones were recorded by Ian Wright against Ipswich Town in 1995 (9 minutes) and Jermaine Pennant against Southampton in 2003 (10 minutes).
21
goals in a Champions League group stage is the new record that belongs to Borussia Dortmund. Manchester United (1998/99), Barcelona (2011/12) and Real Madrid (2013/14) had shared the previous best of 20. Dortmund brought up the landmark by becoming the first team since AEK Athens in 2002 to get a result after being two goals behind at the Bernabeu. Marco Reus got the late equaliser in the 2-2 draw, meaning he has been involved in nine goals in four games since he returned from six months out injured (four goals, five assists). BVB’s other marksman in Madrid was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who at the weekend, became the first player in German Bundesliga history to score 15 goals after 13 rounds in back-to-back campaigns.
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consecutive MLS MVPs have now been Europeans – that after the continent had never previously won the award. David Villa, who hit 23 goals for New York City this term, emulated Robbie Keane and Sebastian Giovinco. Spain’s all-time leading marksman won the prize on Tuesday, three days after his 35th birthday, making him the fourth-oldest recipient of the honour behind Carlos Valderrama, Guillermo Barros Schelotto (both also 35) and Preki (40).
Quick hits 993 passes – 11 per minute – was the towering total Barcelona recorded against Borussia Monchengladbach on Tuesday.
12matches without beating Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 – since a Geoffrey Dernis-inspired 3-1 win at the Parc des Princes in 2010 – was what Montpellier had gone until a 3-0 victory at the weekend.