Paris Saint-Germain maintain their unbeaten start to the 2022-23 Champions League group stage thanks to the previous 1-1 draw Benfica on Wednesday night – a night that Lionel Messi entered the contest record book again.
The Argentinian conductor opened the scoring at the Estadio da Luz with a beautiful cut that left him to witness Be the first player to score on 40 different teams in the Champions League.
Messi ended a Neymar assist to get past Benfica goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos from more than 20 yards to score his 12th Champions League goal for the first time. Unrivaled, no player has scored from long range more often than in the past decade.
As if his talent had ever been questioned, the 35-year-old is on a six-match scoring streak for club and country, showing his best form in front of goal since the 2018-season. 19. He’s back to his best and with 127 Champions League goals scored, he also within touching distance of the Cristiano RonaldoMatch record of 141 goals.
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Benfica becomes the 40th club to be added to Messi’s long list of beaten Champions League opponents – less than a month after the Israeli side Maccabi Haifa It became his 39th goal when he netted against them in a 3-1 win in mid-September. That goal saw Messi overtake longtime partner Ronaldo, with the Portuguese ace. Nha has scored against 38 different clubs in the Champions League.
Top scorer in Champions League vs different clubs
first. Lionel Messi: 40 clubs
2. Cristiano Ronaldo: 38 clubs
3. Karim Benzema: 34 clubs
4. Raul Gonzalez: 33 clubs
5. Robert lewandowski: 31 clubs
6. Zlatan Ibrahimovic: 29 clubs
7. Thomas Muller: 29 clubs
8. Ruud van Nistelrooy: 25 clubs
9. Thierry Henry: 24 clubs
ten. Sergio Aguero: 24 clubs
Since the UEFA Champions League was held in 1992-93, 100 different clubs from across Europe have participated and Messi has now scored against 40% of them.
No club felt his fury quite like Arsenal, who have conceded more goals than any other team. He has nine goals in six games with the Gunners in Europe – including four in a 2010 game – a prolific singles match that includes a goal every 59 minutes and 40 seconds.
Bayer Leverkusen had the biggest single-match record to date, as Messi scored five goals in a match against bewildered Germans to inspire Barcelona won an all-round 7-1 in March 2012.
Arsenal: 9 goals in 6 games (537 minutes total)
Celtic: 8 goals in 6 games (488 minutes)
AC Milan: 8 goals in 8 games (720 minutes)
Bayer Leverkusen: 7 goals in 3 games (270 minutes)
City of Manchester: 7 goals in 8 games (720 minutes)
Ajax: 6 goals in 3 games (247 minutes)
Paris Saint-Germain: 6 goals in 10 games (794 minutes)
Lyon: 5 goals in 6 games (538 minutes)
Bayern MunichH: 4 goals in 6 games (540 minutes)
Manchester United: 4 goals in 6 games (512 minutes)
Messi has only scored one goal in the Champions League Borussia Dortmund, Borussia MonchengladbachFerencvaros, Maccabi Haifa, NaplesOlympiacos, RangersSlavia Prague, Sporting CP, Werder Bremen and Benfica, the newest addition to his hit list.
He has faced a total of 44 different clubs from 19 different countries in Europe’s top league and has so far failed to score against four of them: Atlético MadridInter Milan, Rubin Kazan and Udinese.
With Atletico and Inter both in this year’s tournament, it makes perfect sense that he could extend his incredible Champions League record even further before the 2022-23 season ends.
