A pearl by the Pennines, a relic in Rotterdam and a Gallic goal-getter in Mexico feature in FIFA.com’s latest stats review, along with the ending of one sequence in France and extension of another in Colombia.
200
per cent: that is the scoring ratio Marcus Rashford boasts just two games into his professional career. The teenager was only handed a shock professional debut against Midtjylland last Thursday because Antony Martial injured his hamstring in the warm-up. Rashford responded by hitting a brace to turn a 3-1 aggregate deficit into a 6-3 victory and a place in the UEFA Europa League’s last 16, outranking George Best as Manchester United’s youngest scorer in European competition in the process. The Halloween-born forward then became the fourth-youngest player to start for the Red Devils in the Premier League, after Federico Macheda, Phil Neville and Rafael, on Sunday, and he scored another two goals to inspire a 3-2 defeat of Arsenal that gave United back-to-back league victories for the first time since September. Curiously, Rashford was exactly the same age – 18 years and 120 days – as Wayne Rooney was when he netted his first career double. The morning after those exploits in front of 75,000 at Old Trafford, Rashford turned up at the 1,476-pupil Ashton-on-Mersey School in a modest Audi A3 to continue studying towards his A-levels!
56
years: that is how long the Eredivisie had gone without an over 35-year-old breaking the 15-goal barrier until Dirk Kuyt reached the landmark on Sunday. Faas Wilkes, who hit 35 goals in 38 games for the Netherlands, and Abe Lenstra, who averaged almost a goal per game in his 700-plus-appearance career, were the last men to achieve the feat, at the respective ages of 36 and 39 in 1959/60. Kuyt recently revealed Feyenoord’s woes had left him at “the saddest time of my life”, and their winless league run looked set to extend to ten when 21-year-old Frenchman Sébastien Haller fired Utrecht into an early lead. However, the former Liverpool and Fenerbahce man cushioned home the winner against the club at which he started his career, following a canny Michiel Kramer dummy, to lift Feyenoord to third and drop Utrecht to fifth. Since Dick Advocaat joined the Rotterham heavyweights as an advisor to coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst – admirably on an unpaid basis – they have taken four points from a possible six. Kuyt, who scored 20 or more goals in his last four seasons in the Eredivisie before moving to Anfield, now requires five more to become one of only few players to score 20-plus in five Eredivisie seasons.
41
years 352 days was the age which made defender Luis Vallenilla this past week’s oldest marksman. The long-serving captain’s early goal put Mineros de Guayana ahead at home to Urena on Sunday, and proved one of four times they took the lead in a dramatic 4-3 success which had seven different scorers. Mineros’ first win of the season and in eight attempts lifted them off the foot of the Venezuelan top flight.
36
matches unbeaten: that was the Ligue 1 record run that Paris Saint-Germain lost on their first trip to the Parc Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday. PSG had not lost since going down 3-2 at Bordeaux almost a year ago, and they recently surpassed the 32-game undefeated streak a Nantes team inspired by Claude Makelele, Christian Karembeu, Patrice Loko and Nicolas Ouedec established in 1994. However, in front of 56,661 – a record attendance for Lyon’s new home – goals from Maxwel Cornet and Sergi Darder earned a 2-1 win as Zlatan Ibrahimovic failed to score for the first time in seven league appearances. Les Gones thus became only the second side, after Barcelona, to beat PSG three times in all competitions since 2011.
8
in seven is what makes Andre-Pierre Gignac the only player to boast more goals than games in the Mexican Clausura. The Tigres striker’s latest, in a 4-1 victory over America, left him with seven in his last five league appearances. All the reigning Apertura champions’ goals were scored by overseas-born players, with the Frenchman joining Damian Alvarez, Juninho and Rafael Sobis on the score-sheet.
7
is the number of games played, games drawn, goals scored and goals conceded belonging to Atletico Bucaramanga since their return to the Colombian top tier following a – you’ve guessed it – seven-year absence. Saturday’s 0-0 stalemate at home to Rionegro Aguilas made Bucaramanga the first side to begin the campaign with seven successive stalemates since the championship adopted a round-robin format. Sunday’s 1-0 win over Jaguares moved Junior on to 16 points from a possible 18, with all five of their victories coming via one-goal margins.