Friday 05 May 2017, 06:24

An old rabbit and a monster from Madeira

  • An old rabbit proving he can still jump

  • A skyscraper’s stunning scoring stats

  • CR7 equalling Messi milestones

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shots is what Juventus have faced without conceding in the UEFA Champions League after their 2-0 win away to Monaco. Since Sevilla’s Nicolas Pareja netted against them in November, they have gone ten hours and 21 minutes without conceding in the competition, keeping six successive clean sheets – a feat surpassed only by AC Milan (seven in 2004/05) and Arsenal (ten in 2005/06). Gigi Buffon became at the Stade Louis II just the second player to reach 100 Champions League games for an Italian club after Paolo Maldini (109 for AC Milan). He also went joint-third on the list of highest-appearing goalkeepers, alongside Victor Valdes (106) and behind Petr Cech (111) and Iker Casillas (164).

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goals in the Champions League knockout phase is what Cristiano Ronaldo has scored following his treble against Atletico Madrid – 15 more than his nearest rival on the list, Lionel Messi. The Real Madrid No7 snapped an 11-hour goal drought in the competition by equalising away to Bayern Munich, but now has eight goals in his last two-and-a-half games, tieing his eternal rival’s record for the most goals in one knockout phase (Messi managed eight in 2011/12). Ronaldo also became the first player to score hat-tricks in back-to-back knockout games in the Champions League, equalled Messi’s milestone for the most trebles in it (seven), and surpassed Alfredo Di Stefano for the most goals in the European Cup/Champions League semi-finals (13). Ronaldo, who surprisingly didn’t score in his first 26 appearances in the competition, has now netted an unparalleled 103 times – more than 113 of the 135 clubs to have participated in the tournament.

44

years and 87 days was the age at which Oscar Perez – a goalkeeper – scored one of Mexican football’s most earth-shaking goals. When Pachuca were awarded a corner against Cruz Azul, for whom Perez made a record-setting 500-plus appearances, he ran upfield for it. Realising its taker, Jonathan Urretaviscaya, was not going to wait for him, Perez was forced to go into an all-out sprint just to make it in time, which he did by a split-second. Then, despite being only 1.72m tall in an area crowded with giants, El Conejo (The Rabbit) rose to power a header into the roof of the net with just 48 seconds remaining. The 2-2 draw dramatically extended Pachuca’s unbeaten home run in all competitions to 34 games, kept them above Cruz Azul, and kept alive their playoff hopes while ending that of their opponents. Perez is older than his coach Diego Alonso, while he went to the Copa America 1995 with Mexico three years before his Pachuca team-mate Juan Calero was born. The Mexico City native, who is tiny for a goalkeeper, plays there because of his extraordinary leaping ability – he can famously touch the crossbar with one of his feet! – and it was not the first goal he has recorded. His last one came 11 years ago, for Cruz Azul against Tecos, a header past Jose Corona – astonishingly the man Perez scored past on Sunday.

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goals in 28 games is the stunning return of Bas Dost so far in the 2016/17 Portuguese Liga. The 6ft 5ins Dutchman’s third hat-trick in seven appearances earned Sporting a 3-2 win at Braga on Sunday and left him having scored exactly half of their goals in the campaign. Dost is now 12 goals clear of his nearest rival – Porto’s Tiquinho Soares – on the scoring chart, and trails Messi by just two goals in the race for the European Golden Shoe. If Dost can manage three goals from Sporting’s remaining three outings, he will become just the second player since the mid-1980s to net over 33 goals in a Primeira Liga season – Jardel managed it thrice.

4

of Europe’s top five leagues is what Carlo Ancelotti has become the first coach to conquer. The 57-year-old Italian, who guided AC Milan, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain to domestic championships, repeated the feat with Bayern Munich on Saturday to surpass Jose Mourinho. Bayern ended a five-game winless streak in all competitions to improve their record to five consecutive Bundesliga crowns and hand Wolfsburg their heaviest-ever league defeat (6-0). Arjen Robben’s goal in Lower Saxony was his 88th in 166 Bundesliga appearances, taking him past Mehmet Scholl and Claudio Pizarro and into outright seventh on Bayern’s list of all-time leading scorers behind Gerd Muller (365), Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (162), Roland Wohlfarth (119), Dieter Hoeness (102), Thomas Muller (96) and Elber (92).

Quick hits 125years is what it took Vitesse – the Netherlands’ second-oldest existing club behind Sparta – to win their first major trophy after a Ricky van Wolfswinkel-inspired defeat of AZ in the KNVB Cup final.

31years after an Ecuadorian team last won a Copa Libertadores game in Brazil, the feat was repeated. Barcelona, who had beaten Bangu 2-1 in Rio de Janeiro in 1986, this time upset Botafogo 2-0 in the same city.

9 minutes is all it took Besiktas striker Demba Ba to score on his return from ten-month lay-off which threatened to end his career.

3 assists in his last five Premier League games is what Liverpool’s Lucas Leiva has managed – as many as he did in his previous 163 appearances.