A legend from London’s east and an institution from its north feature in FIFA.com’slatest stats review, along with shocks across Europe, changes in South America and a homegrown hero outshining the foreigners in Asia.
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per cent: that was the record the MLS All-Stars boasted against London opposition in the MLS All-Star Game until Thursday. The hosts had beaten Fulham 4-1 in 2005, Chelsea 1-0 in 2006, West Ham United 3-2 in 2008, Chelsea 3-2 in 2012 and Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 last year. Joel Campbell fired Arsenal ahead from the spot in San Jose and, despite Didier Drogba equalising for the All-Stars with his 16th goal in as many appearances against the Gunners, Chuba Akpom snatched the visitors a 2-1 victory.
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goals in six games is what one Chinese Super League player has scored – and surprisingly he’s not even a foreigner or a forward. Wu Lei’s hat-trick on Sunday earned Shanghai SIPG a 3-3 draw at Guangzhou R&F. It also made the 24-year-old winger the first Chinese player to score a Super League treble since Tianjin Teda’s Du Zhenyu 28 months earlier – the 15 subsequent hat-tricks had all come from foreigners. Wu, bidding to become the first Chinese since 2007 to top the scoring chart, is third, one behind Ricardo Goulart and two shy of Demba Ba, who is out for the season.
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successive Polish Ekstraklasa victories is what Zagłebie Lubin made it for the first time in their history on Sunday. A 2-0 defeat of Nieciecza left Piotr Stokowiec’s men top, with maximum points after three rounds, and having failed to concede a goal in over eight hours in the competition. Elsewhere, defending champions Legia Warsaw appeared to be heading for a fourth domestic match without victory this season, but they admirably turned a two-goal deficit into a 3-2 win at Wisła Płock.
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times Frank Lampard rippled the net to bag his first hat-trick in five years and New York City FC’s first in history. The 38-year-old Englishman’s previous treble helped Chelsea smash Bolton Wanderers 5-1, and his latest helped Patrick Vieira’s team smash Colorado Rapids by the same scoreline. The result snapped the Rapids’ 15-game unbeaten run. After an examining start to life in the MLS, Lampard has now scored eight goals in as many games.
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goals is what APOEL astonishingly scored in injury time last night to swagger into the UEFA Champions League playoffs. They had lost 2-1 at Rosenborg and appeared to be heading out until Giannis Gianniotas’s 91st-minute goal broke the deadlock in Nicosia. Vander and Tomas De Vincenti then completed a 4-2 aggregate success. Another stunning result unfolded in Tallaght, where Dundalk upset BATE Borisov 3-0 to become the first Irish team in history to reach the Champions League playoff round. David McMillan was the hero with a brace – the 27-year-old has now hit 11 goals in his last six appearances in all competitions.
Quick hits 5 coaches have been at the Argentina reins this decade after the appointment of Edgardo Bauza. He follows Diego Maradona, Sergio Batista, Alejandro Sabella and Tata Martino.
4 minutes is all it took Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score on his Manchester United bow against Galatasaray. Fittingly, it was in the acrobatic style with which he won the FIFA Puskás Award for 2013.