IFFHS CONTINENTAL NEWS - EUROPE
Picture : Karim Benzema became yesterday the World's Best goalscorer in 2022 after his hat trick in London !
Statistics on Champions’ League quarterfinals of April 6
*Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, 3-1 vs Chelsea) has scored a hat-trick in his 2nd consecutive Champions League appearance, after the one scored vs PSG (3-1) on 9 March.
He is 4th player in the history of competition with such feat, after Luiz Adriano (2014), Lionel Messi (2016), Cristiano Ronaldo (2017), and just the second to achieve this in the playoff stage (along with CR7).
*It was 4th Champions League hat-trick for Benzema. He is one of 4 players to achieve this. Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi have 8 hat-tricks each, Robert Lewandowski 5.
*Benzema became the 4th player to score an away hat-trick in UCL against English clubs, after Ronaldo (Real Madrid, vs Manchester United, 2003), Gnabry (Bayern, vs Tottenham, 2019) and Nkunku (Leipzig, vs Manchester City, 2021).
*Benzema has become the first player ever to score a hat-trick against Chelsea in Champions Cup/League. Before this, Chelsea remained the team with most games held in the main European club tournament without hat-tricks against.
*Benzema lifted his UCL tally of this season to 11 goals, equaling Sebastien Haller (Ajax, 11) and having only Lewandowski (Bayern, 12) ahead of him.
*Benzema became the first French player to reach 10+ goals in a single Champions League season since its creation in 1992 and the first to do so including European Cup (since 1955) after Just Fontaine who scored 10 goals in the 1958/59 campaign.
*Benzema has scored 2 headers with a gap of 2 minutes 45 seconds. Only 2 players in UCL history made the same with a smaller gap: Heimo Pfeifenberger (Salzburg, 1 minute 54 seconds in 1994) and Hernán Crespo (Inter, 1 minute 57 seconds in 2002).
*Benzema became the new leader in the IFFHS ranking for World’s Best Goal-Scorer 2022 (17 goals). He surpassed Lewandowski (16) and Kylian Mbappe (15).
*Benzema has scored 10 out of 11 last Real Madrid goals.
*Benzema scored in every one of his last 7 appearances (in all competitions) and scored at least 2 goals in each of last 4 games.
*Chelsea have conceded 3+ goals in two consecutive home games in all competitions (including EPL game 1-4 vs Brentford) for the first time in nearly 10 years (since October 2012).
*Bayern (0-1 vs Villarreal) has ended their streak of 30 consecutive scoring UCL games. The last time they failed to score in February 2019 (vs Liverpool).
*The defeat from Villarreal was the first for Bayern in 26 away UCL matches. The last time they lost away was in the 2017/2018 season (0-3 vs PSG in the group stage). The coach of Paris SG and Villareal was ... Unai Emery !