Shutouts, spot kicks and King Cristiano - THE WEEK IN NUMBERS
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In FIFA.com's latest stats review, Cristiano Ronaldo and Eder's goalscoring feats feature alongside Klaas-Jan Huntelaar's penalty misses, clean sheets in England and Boca Juniors' Superclasico success.
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230 La Liga goals is the latest Real Madrid club record claimed by Cristiano Ronaldo. Los Merengues' Portuguese talisman started Saturday three goals adrift of Raul's benchmark, but ended it two ahead after striking five times in a 6-0 win at Espanyol. Ronaldo had completed a hat-trick inside 21 minutes - the earliest of his career - and went on to become just the second Madrid player, after Gaspar Rubio in 1929, to score five times in an away match. Espanyol will certainly be glad to see the back of a player who inspired the heaviest home defeat of their entire 114-year history. Ronaldo, having moved into fourth in the all-time standings by surpassing Alfredo Di Stefano (221 La Liga goals) and Raul (228), now has his sights on another Merengues icon: 234-goal Hugo Sanchez. Telmo Zarra (253) will be next in line before battle is renewed with old rival and overall record-holder Lionel Messi (286). One table in which the Madrid man does now have the edge is the UEFA Champions League scoring list, with last night's hat-trick against Shakhtar Donetsk having taken him past Messi to set a new competition record of 80.
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39 days after becoming South American champions, River Plate endured the familiar sensation of defeat to Boca Juniors. The familiarity arose because every time Los Millonarios have won the Copa Libertadores, a Superclasico setback has swiftly followed. Boca, having beaten their old rivals just four days after their 1986 triumph and 18 days after their 1996 conquest, made it three-in-a-row thanks to Nicolas Lodeiro's solitary, match-winning strike. This also continued another Superclasico pattern: in the last 30 editions of the fixture in which they have opened the scoring, Boca have never lost, winning 22 and drawing eight in a run dating back to 1987.
6 top-flight games without conceding a goal is the run that has enabled Manchester City to set a new club record. The English Premier League leaders have become just the second team in the division's history - after Chelsea in 2005/06 - to open a season with five wins and clean sheets, and boast a 100 per cent record at this stage in the campaign for the first time in 103 years. City, though, continue to fare poorly in Europe, with last night's defeat to Juventus leaving them having won just a third of their 15 home Champions League matches to date - the lowest rate of any English side to have participated in the competition. Chelsea, meanwhile, will hope that the Champions League brings some comfort having endured their worst start to a league season since 1986/87. The Londoners have already matched last season's tally of three top-flight defeats and have conceded 16 times in their last seven Premier League games - once more than in Mourinho's first campaign in charge. In the history of the Premier League, no team with Chelsea's record after five games - one victory, one draw and three defeats - has ever finished higher than third.
5 goals in three matches have propelled Eder to the top of the Serie A scoring chart and left the Brazilian in esteemed company. After all, the Brazilian is one of just three players this century to have made such a prolific start to an Italian campaign, with Alessandro Del Piero (2002/03) and Antonio Di Natale (2009/10) the only others to have scored five or more at this stage. This same number is also thrilling fans of Inter Milan, who returned to the top of table for the first time in five years with a 1-0 derby victory over AC Milan. Fredy Guarin was the match-winner, marking his 100th Serie A appearance with his first goal in the Derby della Madonnina. Inter have now won their opening three league matches for the first time since 2002, and are unbeaten against their old rivals since succumbing to a Zlatan Ibrahimovic strike in November 2010.
0 goals from his last four penalties is the run that has earned Klaas-Jan Huntelaar a share of an unwanted Bundesliga record. The Schalke striker's latest miss left him one of just four players in the division's history - the others being Bruno Labaddia, Marko Pantelic and Nuri Sahin - to fail from the spot on four successive occasions. Huntelaar at least made amends by scoring later in a 2-1 win over Mainz; Hannover's Felipe, on the other hand, was not so lucky. The Brazilian defender became the first Bundesliga player in over a decade to concede two penalties and score an own goal in a single match, and this trio of mistakes left his side facing a 4-2 home defeat to Borussia Dortmund.
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