IFFHS CONTINENTAL STATS - UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Picture : Marcus Rashford became the second English to play for Barcelona in a major European competition, after Gary Lineker.
Champions League statistics: league stage, round 1 (September 18)
Newcastle vs Barcelona 1-2
*Barcelona last started the Champions League with an away win 20 years ago (2-0 vs Werder in Bremen on 14 September 2005).
*Marcus Rashford became the second English to play for Barcelona in a major European competition, after Gary Lineker (24 appearances between 1986 and 1989), and the first to play for them against an English opponent.
*Rashford scored twice on their UCL debut for Barcelona following 4 other players in the club’s history to do so:
Txiki Begiristain (1993), Cristian Tello (2012), Robert Lewandowski (2022) and João Félix (2023).
*Rashford’s goals came from a header and a shot from outside the box. All 3 players to do so in same Champions League game represented Barcelona, including Robert Lewandowski (vs Viktoria Plzen in 2022) and Raphinha (vs Benfica in 2025).
Club Brugge vs Monaco 4-1
*Monaco conceded three goals in the first half; curiously, last time they suffered such a setback in a Champions League match (on 6 November 2018) was also against Club Brugge.
The Club Brugge’s feat (3 goals scored in the first half) was last seen from them in UCL in that game of 2018 vs Monaco as well.
*Monaco have conceded 3+ goals in each of their last 4 away matches in Champions League.
*Monaco have missed 6 of their last 8 penalties in Champions League (Maghnes Acliouche failed now vs Club Brugge).
Eintracht Frankfurt vs Galatasaray 5-1
*Eintracht have last scored 5 goals in a European Cup/Champions League match 55 years ago, on 5 May 1960, against Glasgow Rangers (6-3).
*Leroy Sané, who assisted to the only Galatasaray goal, has now goal involvements on his Champions League debut for all 4 clubs of his career (2 goals, 2 assists).
He is the only player in Champions League history to play for 4+ clubs and score or assist on his debut for all of them.
*Can Uzun (Eintracht) became the first Turkish goal-scorer against Galatasaray in the Champions League.
Sporting Lisbon vs Kairat 4-1
*6,928 km (or 4,292 miles) between Lisbon and Almaty is the biggest distance between the cities of two teams ever facing each other in the history of the Champions League.
*Sherhan Kalmurza (Kairat), aged 18 years 96 days, became the 2nd youngest goalkeeper to have saved a penalty (from Morten Hjulmand) in the Champions League history, behind only Mile Svilar (Benfica, against Manchester United in 2017, at 18 years 65 days).
Copenhagen vs Bayer Leverkusen 2-2
*Alejandro Grimaldo (Bayer) scored 3 direct free kicks in his last 2 games: one here vs Copenhagen and two in a Bundesliga match on 12 September vs Eintracht (3-1).
He has reached 20 direct free kick goals over his senior career.
Manchester City vs Napoli 2-0
*Manchester City are undefeated in their last 22 home matches (19 wins, 3 draws) in the Champions League group stage/league, since their loss on 19 September 2018 against Lyon (1-2).