On December 9, 2020, Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema scored twice in their 2-0 Champions League group stage game victory over Borussia Monchengladbach. With the first of those two goals, Benzema became only the third* person to score 50 or more goals in the group stages of Champions League.
With only Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo above him in terms of number of group stage goals scored in the competition, Benzema surely is in some elite company.
Lionel Messi leads the list with 71 Champions League group stage goals, all of which were for Barcelona. The 71 goals have come in just 75 games, giving him a phenomenal goals per game ratio of 0.95!
It is no surprise that Cristiano Ronaldo is next on this list, with 67 Champions League group stage goals in 93 games so far. His goals, which have come at the rate of 0.72 goals per game, were for three sides – Manchester United, Real Madrid and now Juventus.
Benzema became just the third footballer to notch up 50 or more Champions League group stage goals when he scored his 50th and 51st in the game against Monchengladbach His 51 goals have come in 73 games, played for Lyon and now Real Madrid. Benzema has a goals per game ratio of 0.70 at this stage of the competition.
Statistics do not include goals and appearances from the second group stage that the Champions League had from 1999-2000 to 2002-03. If we were to include goals in that as well, Raul (53) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (50) also have 50 or more group stage goals. Raul and van Nistelrooy’s tallies, however, drop down to 37 and 39 respectively, if their goals in the second group stage aren’t included.
Benzema scored with two near identical headers to bring up his 50th and 51st goals in the group stages of the Champions League.
Apart from the fact that the two goals put Benzema in elite company, it also gave Real Madrid a crucial victory that not only allowed them to progress to the knock-out stages of the competition this time, but also top their group. Record 13-time champions Madrid had started the night in third place in their group, with the risk of failing to qualify from the group stage for the first time in their history.
Picture Credit : Google