Salah chasing record: Eight things you might have missed from Tuesday’s Champions League action | OneFootball

The penultimate gameweek of the 2024-25 Champions League league phase got underway on Tuesday, and it was a day full of action.

Both of the top two sides going into gameweek seven were in action on Tuesday, with Liverpool hosting Lille and Barcelona travelling to Benfica. Another big game saw Atletico Madrid host German champions Bayer Leverkusen at the Wanda Metropolitano.

Of course, eight games across a few hours can make things tough to keep up with everything. So your friends at Squawka are here once again to round up all the best stats and stories.

Kevin De Bruyne toppled

There were two early games on Tuesday, and Atalanta’s match against Sturm Graz was a goal-fest. The Italian side secured a 5-0 victory, and Charles De Ketelaere was at the heart of it.

De Ketelaere has had a brilliant season in the Champions League, adding another goal and assist for Atalanta on Tuesday. It takes his total goal involvements in the competition this season to nine goals, scoring four and providing five assists.

In providing an assist for Ademola Lookman’s 90th-minute goal, De Ketelaere broke the record for most direct goal involvements by a Belgian in a single Champions League season. The previous record of eight was held by Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne in 2022-23, when he scored two goals and provided six assists.

Toothless Villa struggle again

In the other early game, Monaco saw off Premier League side Aston Villa, in a blow for the Villan’s last 16 qualification hopes. And unfortunately for Aston Villa, it was to be expected.

The Villans had 10 shots against Monaco, with five hitting the target for an Expected Goals tally of 0.98. But it was the third time in their past four Champions League games in which Aston Villa had failed to score. In that run were two 1-0 defeats and a goalless draw, alongside a 2-3 away win over RB Leipzig.

The win over RB Leipzig was truly an anomaly as Villa had 19 shots with eight hitting the target. In a 1-0 defeat to Club Brugge, Villa had eight shots and hit the target just once, for a total xG of 0.42. And in their goalless draw with Juventus, Villa’s xG was 1.22 with three shots on target from 11 efforts in total.

France hasn’t been a happy place for Villa either, with the Villans drawing two and losing three of their last five visits, including a 2-1 defeat against Lille in the Europa Conference League last season.

Vangelis Pavlidis joins exclusive club

Vangelis Pavlidis may have ended on the losing side for Benfica, but he did make his mark against Barcelona. The Greek striker had been pretty quiet in the Champions League this season, with just one goal in his opening six appearances.

In fact, for a striker, his return of seven goals in 29 games across all competitions this season leaves a lot to be desired. As it turns out, though, he was just saving his goals for Barcelona.

Pavlidis opened the scoring for Benfica inside two minutes, with an expert first-time finish after a wicked cross into the box. He then restored Benfica’s advantage, capitalising on a big error from Wojciech Szczesny and Alejandro Balde.

And the hat-trick was completed from the penalty spot, after another Szczesny error. In converting the penalty, Pavlidis became just the fourth player to score a Champions League hat-trick against Barcelona after Faustino Asprilla, Andriy Shevchenko and Kylian Mbappe. And only Shevchenko had managed a first-half hat-trick.

Reliable Robert

Although Raphinha got the dramatic late winner for Barcelona, Robert Lewandowski proved to be Mr. Reliable once again. The Polish striker scored twice for Barcelona, with both goals coming from the penalty spot. He’s now scored nine goals in the Champions League this season, more than any other player.

And we should have known the goals were coming. Lewandowski has now scored 19 of his 20 penalties in the Champions League, the best conversion rate in Champions League history among players to have taken more than six spot-kicks, excluding shootouts.

His 95% success rate sees him ahead of Harry Kane (90.9%), Jorginho (88.9%) and Cristiano Ronaldo (86.4%) among the best.

Guess who’s back

Mohamed Salah was on a terrible run, going three games without scoring across all competitions over the past two weeks. No wonder Liverpool were holding out on giving him a new contract.

But that drought came to an end as Salah opened the scoring in Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Lille. It was a victory, coincidentally, which secured Liverpool’s space in the last 16.

For Salah it was also a landmark, his 20th Champions League goal for Liverpool at Anfield. The Egyptian is now just three goals behind Sergio Aguero (at the Etihad) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (at Old Trafford) for the most goals scored at a specific venue for an English team in the Champions League.

And you can bet he’ll be looking to take the record outright this season.

Virgil van Dijk equals Liverpool legend

As well as securing qualification to the last 16 of the Champions League, Liverpool’s win over Lille was a special moment for Virgil van Dijk.

The Dutchman was making his 50th Champions League appearance for Liverpool, and he has a pretty good record in the competition. Van Dijk has now won 35 of his 50 Champions League games for Liverpool, with no Reds player managing more in their first 50 matches of the competition (under both its Champions League and European Cup guises). Van Dijk matched Phil Neal’s European Cup record of 35 wins in his first 50 games.

History for Bologna

The new Champions League fixture has produced a couple of big results across the campaign, and the expanded qualification means that there was still a lot to fight for. And matchweek seven brought a momentous occasion for Bologna.

The Italian side were in the Champions League/European Cup for the first time in 60 years, but their return hadn’t gone to plan. Bologna had taken just two points from their opening six games and were staring elimination in the face.

Things were made worse when they went 0-1 down at home to Borussia Dortmund. But, knowing there was still a chance, Bologna kept fighting and eventually got their reward. The Italian side equalised in the 71st minute and went ahead in the 72nd, the first time they had led in the Champions League this season.

And they held on for the win, their first in European football since the 1999-2000 Uefa Cup.

The worst first half ever?

Tuesday’s Champions League action saw 33 goals across eight games. But none of them came in Club Brugge’s match against Juventus.

If you chose to watch this game, we’re sorry. But if you made it through the game, well done. The first half between Club Brugge and Juventus may go down as one of the worst in Champions League history.

There were just two shots in the opening 45 minutes, with each side managing one. But neither hit the target and the combined xG was 0.12. There were more shots after half-time, 10 in fact with Club Brugge taking six and Juventus having four.

We also had to wait until the 85th minute for the first and only shot on target of the game, with Juventus’ Manuel Locatelli the man to get it. Not that it changed anything about the result.

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