Triumphant travels from a big city Down Under and a small nation in South America feature in FIFA.com’slatest stats review, along with a teenager and a tiger running riot on a microstate and huge victories in Europe.
22,000
kilometres is what Brisbane Roar travelled through the air over 21 days – and they amazingly emerged from the six-game, three-country spell unbeaten. It began when John Aloisi’s men snapped a three-match losing streak with a 1-0 win against Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand. The Roar then beat Western Sydney Wanderers and Philippines' Global FC, and held unstoppable A-League leaders Sydney FC, in Queensland. A 2-0 upset of a Shanghai Shenhua side spearheaded by Carlos Tevez and Obafemi Martins in China PR ensued, which snatched them a place in the group stage of the AFC Champions League at their opponents’ expense, before they drew 2-2 at Melbourne City on Saturday. Key to the Roar’s run was 21-year-old winger Brandon Borrello, who hit six goals in his last five outings.
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years after they won their last South American U-20 Championship title, Uruguay finally repeated the feat – and in the same country, Ecuador. When Enzo Francescoli magically propelled Uruguay to a seventh crown in 1981, Brazil had only one of the record 11 they now own. But as Matias Vina, Nicolas De La Cruz, Nicolas Schiappacasse and Rodrigo Amaral inspired La Celeste to an eighth regional gold, A Seleção failed to reach the FIFA U-20 World Cup for the second time in three attempts. One team who will be going to Korea Republic 2017 is Venezuela, despite failing to win any of their first five games – they drew all four Group B outings and only reached the final phase on goal difference.
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years and two months made Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe the youngest player to net a Ligue 1 hat-trick in 12 years. Jeremy Menez became the youngest treble-scorer in the competition’s history – at the age of 17 years and eight months – for Sochaux against Bordeaux in 2005. Falcao also contributed to Monaco’s 5-0 win over Metz – opponents they have now beaten, without conceding, in five straight matches – with a double. The 31-year-old Colombian duly became the first Monaco player to score 15 goals in a French top-flight season since Shabani Nonda in 2002/03. Leonardo Jardim’s men have netted a whopping 75 goals in 25 games in Ligue 1 this campaign – they had managed just 36 at the same stage in 2015/16. Monaco have also scored over 70 goals in a season for the first time since Delio Onnis ran riot for them in 1978/79.
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successive home victories is what Bayern Munich made it against Arsenal on Wednesday to set a UEFA Champions League record. The Bavarians last failed to win in the competition at the Allianz Arena in April 2014 when Real Madrid triumphed 4-0 over a side then coached by Pep Guardiola. Bayern fielded, at an average of over 29 years, their oldest Champions League starting XI in over 11 years, and 33-year-old Arjen Robben fired them ahead. Alexis Sanchez became the third straight player to fail to score a penalty against Manuel Neuer in Europe, but the Chilean rattled home the rebound to equalise. In the second half, however, Bayern became the first team to score thrice in 11 minutes against an English side in the Champions League. The 5-1 win left Bayern having averaged four goals per game over their last 13 European home assignments (52 in 13).
0
touches is what Barcelona’s Lionel Messi managed inside the Paris Saint-Germain penalty area on Tuesday. The 29-year-old also finished the match by completing two fewer passes than his own goalkeeper, Marc-Andre ter Stegen. Barça finished up having failed to score for the first time in 21 games and having suffered the joint-heaviest defeat in European competition. Angel Di Maria starred in the 4-0 triumph, becoming the first Argentinian to bag a brace against the Catalan giants in the competition since Abel Balbo did it for Fiorentina in a 3-3 draw in 1999. Unai Emery had won just one of his 23 meetings with Barcelona while at the reins of Sevilla, but now has a great chance to lead PSG into the quarter-finals – no team has reversed a four-goal deficit to win a Champions League tie.
Quick hits 6 goals without reply is what Mamelodi Sundowns scored to record their biggest-ever Premier Soccer League victory and hand Orlando Pirates their heaviest-ever defeat in South Africa.
6 goals is what Reza Ghoochannejhad has scored in the Dutch Eredivisie in 2017 – all of Heerenveen’s goals.
3 goals in six minutes from Ben Harris helped Team Wellington reverse a two-goal deficit, thrash Waitakere United 7-2, and leapfrog their opponents on goal difference in the race for the New Zealand Football Championship title.