Comebacks, centuries and an inconceivable cushion decorate FIFA.com’s latest stats review, along with landmark goals in the wests of Germany and USA.
100
Premier League goals is the landmark that Sergio Aguero became the second-fastest player to reach on Tuesday. The 27-year-old Argentinian became only the third away player to score a Premier League hat-trick at Chelsea on Saturday, after Kanu and Robin van Persie did so for Arsenal, before heading Manchester City ahead at Newcastle United to complete the century in his 147th appearance in the competition. The Magpies nonetheless earned a 1-1 draw that ended a run of 12 consecutive losses against City in the English top flight. The quickest man to reach 100 Premier League goals was Alan Shearer (124 games), while following Aguero on the list are Thierry Henry (160), Ian Wright (173) and Robbie Fowler (175).
28
points is what Olympiacos finished above AEK to shatter the record margin between the Super League’s winners and runners-up. The Piraeus powerhouses had themselves set the previous biggest gap – 17 points in 2013/14. A 5-0 rout of Kalloni on Sunday left Marco Silva’s side on 85 points from a possible 90 – the fewest dropped in the history of the Greek top tier. The result extended to 25 Olympiacos’s unprecedented run of home victories in the competition, and gave them a sixth straight league title (one shy of their own record) and a 43rd overall. Rangers (54), Linfield (51) and Celtic (46) are the only European clubs to have won more top-flight titles, with Benfica in fifth (34). Attacking midfielder Kostas Fortounis, who had scored just three goals in 103 league games in his career prior to joining Olympiacos in 2014, finished as the competition’s top assister (12) and, surprisingly, leading marksman (18).
18
matches unbeaten in 2016 was the sequence Borussia Dortmund were seconds away from extending until Liverpool completed an historic comeback last Thursday. Thomas Tuchel’s team led 3-1 at Anfield after 65 minutes, which, due to the away-goals rule, left Jurgen Klopp’s charges requiring three goals without reply to reach the UEFA Europa League semi-finals. But that’s exactly what the Reds, who failed to register a single shot on target during the first half, got to make it 16 home games unbeaten against German opposition in Europe.
17
years and 212 days was the age at which Christian Pulisic became the fourth-youngest player – and youngest foreigner – to score in the German Bundesliga. The Hershey, Pennsylvania native, who recently outranked Jonathan Spector to become the youngest player to represent USA in a FIFA World Cup™ qualifier, broke the deadlock in Dortmund’s 3-0 win of Hamburg on Sunday to move behind Nuri Sahin, Julian Draxler and Timo Werner on the ranking. Incredibly, eight of the competition’s top ten youngest marksmen have come from the Revierderby clubs: Sahin, Pulisic, Lars Ricken, Ibrahim Tanko and Marc-Andre Kruska for Dortmund, and Draxler, Rudiger Abramczik and Wolfram Wuttke for Schalke.
9
minutes is all it took William Mendieta to score a hat-trick that inspired Olimpia to turn a three-goal deficit into a 5-3 away victory on Saturday. Deportivo Capiata led 3-0 after an hour, but the 27-year-old attacking midfielder quickly levelled the scores, before Fredy Bareiro and Ariel Nunez completed the comeback. After stumbling out of the blocks in the Paraguayan Apertura, Olimpia have won seven straight matches, scoring 5.25 goals per games on average over their last four. Meanwhile Capiata, despite winning seven and losing just one of their last 11 away games, have failed to triumph in seven successive home contests.
Quick hits 114 MLS goals was what San Jose Earthquakes’ Chris Wondolowski reached with a late penalty in a 3-1 loss at Portland Timbers, moving him level with Ante Razov as the fourth-leading marksman in the league’s history. The men still ahead of him are Landon Donovan (144), Jeff Cunningham (134) and Jaime Moreno (133).
39 years after Dieter Muller became the last player to reach 27 goals after 30 rounds in the Bundesliga, Robert Lewandowski repeated the feat thanks to a double in Bayern Munich’s 3-0 defeat of Schalke.
16 of Vitesse’s 31 Eredivisie games this season have been goalless at half-time. Contrastingly, those 16 matches have produced 28 second-half goals.
15 UEFA Youth League matches undefeated is what Chelsea made it with a 2-1 victory over Paris Saint-Germain in Monday’s final as they successfully defended their crown.
2 is the number of relegations Lewis Kinsella suffered on the same day, after he played in the 0-0 draw which dropped Kidderminster Harriers from the fifth tier of English football and his parent club Aston Villa suffered demotion from the Premier League.