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A No10 beating multiple goalies and a No11 joining multiple acclaim clubs feature inFIFA.com’s latest stats review, along with one record run being established, another being extinguished, and ball-keeping curiosities.
41per cent possession is all Sydney FC have averaged over their opening two games – the lowest in the A-League – yet they top the table and boast a +8 goal difference. Curiously, the team with the highest possession, Central Coast Mariners on 63 per cent, have just one point and a -4 goal difference. Filip Holosko’s brace propelled the Sky Blues to a 4-0 reverse of the Mariners on Saturday, leaving the 65-times-capped Slovakia international as the tournament’s leading marksman and having scored all three of his shots on target this season. Sydney have now won seven straight domestic games, netting 23 and conceding zero in the process.
33games unbeaten was the K-League record run that ended for Jeonbuk Motors on Saturday. Jeonbuk hadn’t lost since going down 2-1 at Suwon Bluewings on the final day of the 2015 campaign, and they appeared en route to taking another step towards becoming the first side to finish a season without defeat when Lee Donggook gave them the lead on the stoke of half-time. It extended The Return of Superman reality-show star’s K-League scoring record to 190 goals, and ensured he became the first player in history to reach double figures in eight successive seasons. Jeju rallied, however, to win 3-2, leaving them unbeaten in eight games and having recorded three straight away victories. FC Seoul, who began the weekend having lost ten matches to Jeonbuk’s zero, are now level on points with the leaders.
25games unbeaten at home in the Bundesliga: that is the club-record run Borussia Dortmund established. The likes of Jens Lehmann, Christian Worns, Jurgen Kohler, Christoph Metzelder, Tomas Rosicky, Ewerthon, Jan Koller and Marcio Amoroso helped BVB go 24 matches without defeat in front of their own fans from 2001 to ’03. The third-youngest Dortmund side in Bundesliga history – its average age was 22 years and 337 days – brought up the milestone with a 1-1 draw against Hertha Berlin. It also extended Dortmund’s sequence without losing at Signal Iduna Park on a Friday to 23 games. Emre Mor did nonetheless collect Dortmund’s first red card in 93 league outings. It was the first in any Dortmund-Hertha fixture for 15-and-a-half years.
16years after two English players last scored in the same UEFA Champions League game for Arsenal, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain ensured history was repeated against Ludogorets. Since Ray Parlour and Lee Dixon found the target against Sparta Prague in October 2000, France and Spain had been the only countries to have had two players on the same score-sheet for the Gunners – the former on multiple occasions, and the latter against Rosenborg in 2004 thanks to Jose Antonio Reyes and Cesc Fabregas. Walcott now has seven goals in his last six games for his club. Meanwhile Mesut Ozil’s first career treble made him only the third German – and fifth Arsenal player – to score a Champions League hat-trick, emulating compatriots Uwe Rosler and Mario Gomez, and former Gunners Thierry Henry, Nicklas Bendtner, Danny Welbeck and Olivier Giroud. It presented Arsene Wenger with a 6-0 success to mark his 100th victory in European competitions as Arsenal manager.
10years had passed since a player scored against two goalkeepers in a Champions League game until Lionel Messi did it on Wednesday. The last had been Ruud van Nistelrooy, who beat Olexandr Shovkovskiy and Olexandr Rybka – he won the penalty for which the former got sent off, before converting it past the latter – in Real’s 5-1 win over Dynamo Kiev. Messi finished Barcelona’s 4-0 thrashing of Manchester City having become just the second man in Champions League history to post back-to-back hat-tricks – Luiz Adriano, then of Shakhtar, was the first. The 29-year-old Argentinian has now scored 12 goals in his last eight Champions League outings.
Quick hits
31 appearances without victory is what Jack Rodwell has made for Sunderland – an unwanted record for a player at a Premier League club.
8 successive matches is what Aigle Noir have drawn – all by 0-0 or 1-1. The only other undefeated team ten rounds into the Ligue Haïtienne is Ouanaminthe, who have six stalemates to their name.
6 goals in seven games in what Joshua Kimmich has bagged for Bayern Munich – incredibly after taking 40 appearances to net his first goal for the club.
Quick hits
31 appearances without victory is what Jack Rodwell has made for Sunderland – an unwanted record for a player at a Premier League club.
8 successive matches is what Aigle Noir have drawn – all by 0-0 or 1-1. The only other undefeated team ten rounds into the Ligue Haïtienne is Ouanaminthe, who have six stalemates to their name.
6 goals in seven games in what Joshua Kimmich has bagged for Bayern Munich – incredibly after taking 40 appearances to net his first goal for the club.