Lionel Messi did Lionel Messi things as Barcelona ripped Real Sociedad apart to keep pace with Atletico Madrid at the top of La Liga (Barca are four points behind Atleti, Real Madrid are six behind their cross-town rivals). Manchester City and Chelsea cruised through to the FA Cup semifinals, where they were joined by Southampton and Leicester City (who swatted aside Manchester United en-route). Bayern Munich were reduced to 10 men in the 12th minute vs. Stuttgart, then proceeded to smash in four unanswered goals. Because, Bayern. They lead RB Leipzig at the top of Bundesliga by four points. In Serie A, Andrea Pirlo’s Juventus were shocked by Pippo Inzaghi’s Benevento, Napoli comfortably outplayed Roma and AC Milan won by the odd goal in seven in a humdinger against Fiorentina. Oh, and in the Premier League, Arsenal did Arsenal things as they went from 0-3 down in 32 minutes to drawing 3-3 at full time.
Yep, it was some weekend of football. And, as ever, By the numbers has the best stats from all that action —
Premier League
14
Chelsea’s 14-game unbeaten streak under Thomas Tuchel in all competitions is the longest-ever unbeaten start by a Chelsea manager. This is how their record reads in those 14 games — 10W 4D 0L, 17 goals scored vs. 2 conceded (incl. 12 clean sheets).
15
This was Chelsea’s 15th FA Cup quarter-final since 2000 – the most of any side – and they have now reached the semi-finals for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
30
Manchester United have lost an away match against English opposition for the first time in 30 matches — their last such defeat? Liverpool, January 2020.
39
In what was Brendan Rodgers’ 100th game in charge at the club, Leicester City have reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the first time in 39 years (1981-82). They are now two matches away from addressing a statistical oddity — they are the only top-flight winner never to have won the FA Cup.
87
Manchester City have reached the FA Cup semi final in three consecutive seasons for the first time in 87 years. They last did it between 1931/32 – 1933/34.
3
West Ham-Arsenal was the third PL game this season in which a team has led by 3+ goals and failed to win (West Brom 3-3 Chelsea and Tottenham 3-3 West Ham). The only other PL season to see three such instances was 2010-11.
23
Tomas Soucek is the first player to score both a goal and an own goal in the same home PL game for West Ham since… Frank Lampard vs. Leicester at Upton Park in Nov 1998.
30
Harry Kane has been directly involved in 30 goals in the PL this season (17 goals, 13 assists). Only Robert Lewandowski (41) has more across the top five European leagues in 2020-21.
Serie A
2
Benevento are the first newly promoted team to remain unbeaten in both league games of a season against Juventus since Sampdoria in 2012/13. On a side note, before their win at Juve, Benevento had been on an 11-game winless streak, having not won since Jan 6.
15
If we were to have a mini-table solely for sides in the current top-7 on the Serie A table, only Inter (18 in 9 matches) have picked up more points than Napoli (15 in 9 games). The lowest, and by a fair bit, is AS Roma, who have got only 3 points, at least 8 fewer than any other team on the mini-table.
39, 169
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, at 39 years and 169 days young, is the oldest player to reach 15 goals in a season in the history of Serie A.
La Liga
13
Karim Benzema has been involved in more away goals than any other player in the division this season (13; 8G 5A).
18
Sergino Dest is the 18th player to score for Barcelona in La Liga this season. That’s the most different scorers for a team in the top five European leagues in 2020/21.
500
Luis Suarez has now scored 500 goals in his professional career for club and country (Barcelona – 198, Ajax – 111, Liverpool – 82, Uruguay – 63, Atletico Madrid – 19, Groningen – 15, Nacional – 12)
Bundesliga
14
Erling Haaland has scored 14 away goals in the Bundesliga this season. Just to put that in perspective, that’s more than Werder Bremen (13), Hertha Berlin (13), Mainz (11), Bielefeld (10) and Schalke (8) have scored AT HOME in 2020-21. The kid’s 20 years old.
35
Speaking of prolific goalscorers, Robert Lewandowski has now scored 35 goals this Bundesliga season. A gentle reminder that Bayern Munich have 8 games left in the season.
Only Gerd Müller has ever scored more in a single campaign in the league (and the great man has done it thrice before — 40 in 1971-72, 38 in 1969-70, 36 in 1972-73).
Messi-Ronaldo watch
Cristiano Ronaldo had an awful night out. Lionel Messi, pretty much the opposite [an assist and two goals against La Real].
1
This is Messi’s first multi-goal game at the Anoeta against Real Sociedad [entered Sunday with 5 goals in 13 games there in all competitions].
23
With 23 La Liga goals this season, Messi leads good friend and former teammate Luis Suarez by 4 in the race for the Pichichi [Messi has won a record 7 of those].
768
This was Messi’s 768th appearance for Barcelona in all competitions. That’s a record for the club — passing Xavi Hernandez on 767. He, of course, holds the record for most goals scored (663) and trophies won (34) for the club. His 467 goals for Barcelona in La Liga are also the most for a single club in the top five European leagues (English first division, Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga and Ligue 1).
(Stats courtesy ESPN’s Stats & Information Group)
