Friday 13 January 2017, 07:34

Ladies, devils and a gunslinger

El Pistolero eclipsing every great in Barcelona’s history, La Vecchia Sign**ora sprinting third in pursuit of a Barça record and some rampant Red Devils star in FIFA.com’slatest stats review, along with a 17-year-old from Naples and a veteran Jersey girl.

100

goals for Barcelona is what Luis Suarez became the quickest player in history to reach on Wednesday. It took the 29-year-old Uruguayan just 120 outings, smashing the record shared by Lionel Messi and Hristo Stoichkov by 66 appearances. By breaking the deadlock against Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey, Suarez became only the 17th player to reach Barça’s century club after Lionel Messi (479), Cesar Rodriguez (230), Ladislao Kubala (194), Samuel Eto’o (130), Rivaldo (130), Josep Escola (123), Mariano Martin (123), Patrick Kluivert (122), Carles Rexach (122), Hristo Stoichkov (117), Estanislao Basora (113), Eulogio Martinez (111), Luis Enrique (108), Jose Antonio Zaldua (107), Evaristo de Macedo (105) and Juan Manuel Asensi (100). Neymar then ended the worst goal drought of his Barcelona career at 1,023 minutes, before Messi made it 479 goals for the club by netting a free-kick for the third game running. It saw the 29-year-old Argentinian tie Ronald Koeman’s record of 26 free-kick goals for Barcelona, and saw Enrique’s men snatch a 4-3 aggregate victory and reach the quarter-finals.

26

successive home victories in Serie A is the new record Juventus established on Sunday. Paulo Dybala successfully converted his 11th penalty from 11 attempts in the 2016/17 Italian top flight, and a Gonzalo Higuain double taking him on to five goals in three league games, aided the landmark-landing 3-0 reverse of Bologna. Only two teams in the history of Europe’s big five leagues have won more consecutive home games. Luis Suarez, Zoltan Czibor, Ladislao Kubala, Evaristo de Macedo and Sandor Kocsis inspired Barcelona to 39 between 1958 and ’60, while Herve Revelli’s goals helped Saint-Etienne achieve 28 from 1974 to ’75.

9

straight matches is what Manchester United have won for the first time in almost eight years. After winning just one of eight Premier League games until early December, Jose Mourinho’s men have recorded six consecutive victories in that competition, as well as defeating Zorya in the UEFA Europa League, Reading in the FA Cup and Hull City in the League Cup. Key to their form has been Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has bagged ten goals in as many appearances.

6

different players had won FIFA's top women's player honour in the past six years until Carli Lloyd became the first to retain the crown since 2010, picking up the first-ever The Best FIFA Women's Player award. The changing-of-hands sequence began after just three players – Mia Hamm, Birgit Prinz and Marta – had lifted the first ten trophies. Lloyd extended her record as the oldest outfield player to seize the prize to 34, while the Houston Dash midfielder became the first USA-based recipient since Hamm was with Washington Freedom in 2002.

4

successive FIFA Puskas Award-winning goals has been volleys until Mohd Faiz Subri ended the trend Monday’s FIFA Gala. Miroslav Stoch’s dipping strike for Fenerbahce against Genclerbirligi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s imperial overhead-kick for Sweden against England, James Rodriguez’s chest and smash for Colombia at the last FIFA World Cup™ and Wendell Lira’s 360° semi-scissor has claimed the prize between 2012 and ’15 respectively. Subri’s mind-blowing, mega-swerving free-kick for Penang in the Malaysian Super League got 59 per cent of the vote – the second-highest percentage in FIFA Puskas Award's history.

Quick hits 50 Serie A appearances for AC Milan is what 17-year-old goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma became the youngest player to reach at the weekend.