The Champions League

05/09/22 1898

The Champions League is the biggest prize in club football and the 2022/23 season is set to be another exceptional season.

The defending champions are Real Madrid and they beat Liverpool 1-0 in the final last season. Having lost at home in the group stages of the 2021/22 Champions League to Sheriff Tiraspol of Moldova, which was one of the biggest upsets in the history of the competition, Real Madrid recovered to lift the trophy.

Real Madrid relied on the goals of Karim Benzema last season and the French international scored 15 goals in the competition. That number of goals equalled the highest number scored in the competition since 2015/16, when Cristiano Ronaldo scored 16 goals for Real Madrid.

Ronaldo holds the record for the number of goals scored in a single Champions League campaign and he netted 17 times for Real Madrid in the 2013/14 season.

Ronaldo will not be adding to his tally as he is playing in the Europa League for Manchester United but he could still end the 2022/23 season as the leading Champions League goal scorer in history, with 140 goals.

Lionel Messi is second in the list on 125 goals, with Robert Lewandowski and Benzema in joint third on 83 goals.

Having won the Champions League last season, Real Madrid have the most European titles to their name, having won the competition 13 times.

That leaves them well clear of AC Milan on 7, with Bayern Munich and Liverpool on 6 apiece. In terms of reaching the latter stages of the competition, Real Madrid have played in the semi-final 31 times, which is 11 clear of Bayern Munich and 14 clear of Barcelona. That underlines the dominance of Real Madrid in the Champions League.

Football fans love seeing goals and the 2000/01 season was the best for overall goal scoring in the Champions League.

There was a total of 449 goals scored in the Champions League during that season, which also holds the record for the highest number of goals on a single matchday.

A total of 63 goals were scored on matchday one of the first group stage of the 2000/01 competition. However, it is worth noting there were two group stages in the Champions League that season but the same number of groups in the first group stage of the tournament, when the single matchday goals record was broken.

The most goals in a single Champions League game was in the fixture between Borussia Dortmund and Legia Warszawa in November 2016. It was the fifth round of matches in the group stage and Borussia Dortmund won the game 8-4.

The most goals in a Champions League knockout game is currently 10 and that was set in the extraordinary 2020 quarter final as Bayern Munich won 8-2 against Barcelona.

Going back to the preliminary rounds of the European Cup, 8 teams have won games by a margin of 10 goals or more, with Dinamo București beating Crusaders 11-0 in 73/74 being the record.

The largest margin of victory in the Champions League group stage is 8-0 and that has happened twice, with Liverpool beating Besiktas and Real Madrid beating Malmo.

Will we see new records set in the 2022/23 Champions League?