UCL magic is back. Facts you need to know about Matchday 1

The most interesting and beautiful club football tournament is back. Matchday 1  was as interesting as we expected. Barcelona started the season with beautiful goals, Lionel Messi netted a hat-trick. Inter celebrated his come back to Europe with a victory against Tottenham. And Liverpool beat Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield. Here are the most interesting facts about Champions League 2018/19 Matchday 1.

• Liverpool have won their opening six competitive matches of a season for the first time since 1961-62.
• No player has been involved in more goals than Roberto Firmino 🇧🇷 in the Champions League since 2017/18 (18 - 11 goals, 7 assists).
• Kylian Mbappe has scored in his third Champions League season - he is only one of nine players to have scored in 3+ seasons aged under 21
• Daniel Sturridge has been directly involved in a goal in each of his last four Champions League appearances for Liverpool (2 goals, 2 assists).
• Since the start of last season, Liverpool have scored 43 Champions League goals; 10 more than any other team in the competition in this period.

• Christian Pulisic is only the second Borussia player to score a Champions League goal on their birthday, joining Stefan Reuter, who did so in 1996.
• Iker Casillas will become the first player in the Champions League history to play in 20 different seasons.
• Christian Eriksen has scored three goals in his last five Champions League appearances, one more than he netted in his previous 24 in the competition (2).

 

• Lionel Messi has scored more hat-tricks than any other player in Champions League/European Cup history.
• Lionel Messi has now scored as many Champions League goals as PSV
• Lionel Messi has scored eight direct free-kicks in 2018 - the most he has netted in a calendar year.
• Lionel Messi is the second player in the Champions League history to score in 14 consecutive seasons, after Raul Gonzalez.

Champions League MatchDay 1: RESULTS

 

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