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In FIFA.com’s latest weekly stats review, the goalscoring exploits of Cristiano Ronaldo, Alberto Gilardino and Salomon Kalou feature alongside a momentous title for Melbourne City and a moment of relief for Eden Hazard.
184Serie A goals was the landmark reached by Palermo’s Alberto Gilardino on Saturday, taking him level with Gabriel Batistuta’s final tally in Italy. The pair now sit in joint-13th in the league’s all-time standings. Carpi, who recovered from Gilardino's opener to earn a 1-1 draw, also became the 38th different Serie A club against whom the former Azzurri international has scored, equalling a record held by Francesco Totti and Roberto Baggio. Totti himself was to be found climbing another historical table over the weekend, with the Roma captain's 593rd Serie A appearance taking him past Gianluca Pagliuca into third position in the all-time standings. Only Paolo Maldini (647) and Javier Zanetti (615) are now left to aim at.
31games and almost nine months without a Chelsea goal was the drought that came to a long-awaited end for Eden Hazard on Sunday. The Belgian winger slotted home a penalty in the Blues’ 5-1 FA Cup win at MK Dons, ending a run that dated back to last May. The star of this victory, however, was Oscar, who became the first Chelsea player to score a hat-trick since Diego Costa in September 2014. All three of the Brazilian’s goals came in the first half, making him the first player to score a treble in the opening 45 of an FA Cup game since Plymouth Argyle’s Reuben Reid in November 2013. In total, eight hat-tricks have been scored in this season’s FA Cup, already surpassing the entire total produced by last year’s competition.
14games, 14 victories, with 42 goals scored and just five conceded. These were the statistics that secured Melbourne City the Australian title in a near-flawless debut W-League campaign. Having won all 12 games during the regular season and triumphed on penalties in their play-off semi-final, City reasserted their dominance in the Grand Final with an accomplished 4-1 win over Sydney FC. Their opponents had been bidding to become the first team to win three W-League titles, but were undone by goals from Scottish imports Jennifer Beattie and player of the match Kim Little, before teenager Beattie Goad and Matildas captain Lisa De Vanna rounded off the victory.
10goals or more in a single season: until Saturday, no-one had ever managed this feat in each of the top flights of England, France and Germany. Salomon Kalou duly became the first, moving into double figures with a goal in Hertha Berlin’s 3-3 draw against Werder Bremen to add to his ten-goal season with Chelsea in 2010/11 and 14 and 16-goal hauls with Lille in 2012/13 and 2013/14. There were also notable feats elsewhere in Germany, with Bayern Munich youngster Joshua Kimmich becoming just the third player – after Thiago Alcantara and Dominik Kohr – to win all of his first 11 Bundesliga appearances. And we had a first glimpse of an even more youthful starlet, as Borussia Dortmund’s American midfielder Christian Pulisic - 17 years, 4 months and 12 days old – became the eighth-youngest debutant in Bundesliga history.
8goals this season and 11 in the last nine months are hauls that plenty of players would be satisfied with. For Cristiano Ronaldo, though, these are simply his tallies against a single team. Espanyol are that unfortunate side, having been on the wrong side of three Ronaldo hat-tricks in as many meetings with Real Madrid. Los Merengues' Portuguese talisman was at it again on Sunday, hitting a treble in a 6-0 win to become the first player this century to score eight times against the same team in a single La Liga campaign. Furthermore, it was a ‘perfect’ hat-trick (right-foot, left-foot and header), the fifth such treble of the 39 Ronaldo has amassed in his career thus far. With Lionel Messi also on target over the weekend in Barcelona’s 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid, this extraordinary duo combined have now reached and passed the landmark of 1000 goals (Messi 482, Ronaldo 521).