UEFA Champions League Stats Recap: Matchday 1 | The Analyst

We look back at the key UEFA Champions League stats stories and moments that matter from Matchday 1 of the 2023-24 competition.

Even Robert Lewandowski will tell you that there is zero chance of him catching Cristiano Ronaldo’s 140-goal record UEFA Champions League goal tally, or even the 129 scored by Lionel Messi in second. However, both of those are gone from Europe now, with fourth-ranked Karim Benzema joining Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia. This leaves Lewandowski out on his own among the top scoring UCL players of all-time to still be playing in the competition.

His target will undoubtedly be to become just the third player to reach 100 goals in the competition (excluding qualifiers), and he edged closer with a goal versus Royal Antwerp tonight. Now on 92 goals, he’s just eight away from the century.

Antwerp were the 33rd team to concede a goal to the Polish striker in the Champions League, with Lewandowski’s spread lower than only Messi (40), Ronaldo (38) and Benzema (34) in the competition.

At 35 years and 29 days old, Lewandowski also became Barcelona’s all-time oldest goalscorer in the Champions League, overtaking Gerard Piqué (34y 260d). With age no longer on his side, he’ll be hoping that Barcelona can get past the group stage to help him on his personal goal quest. Despite five goals in five UCL games last season, they exited before the knockout stages and dropped into the Europa League, but with arguably the easiest group this time around, it’s unlikely to happen again.

AC Milan were drawn into the Champions League group of death a season after reaching the semi-finals, and they reached that elite European stage with what at times was a rather conservative style. They didn’t allow a goal in their final two group-stage matches through their first quarter-final match against Napoli, and on that five-game run Milan never had an advantage in possession. After the group stage, they never managed more than four shots on target in a match.

Things started faster Tuesday at the San Siro against Group F opponents Newcastle with Rafael Leão dancing the ball through penalty area and Rade Krunić creating three chances in the first 19 minutes, but being on the front foot didn’t translate to three points – or even a goal.

Stefano Pioli’s side were consistently more aggressive out of the gate with six shots on target in the first 20 minutes, and they ended the first half with seven for the most they’ve managed in the first half of a Champions League match dating to 2003-04. Their 15 shots in the half were the most they’ve had since their 17 against BATE in 2011-12, while it took Newcastle 41 minutes to produce their first shot after a two-decade absence from the competition.

Milan quieted some in the second half but were still the more threatening side, finishing with 25 shots on nine on target. The data says it should have amounted in two goals with a 2.08-0.19 expected goals advantage, and the history books confirm there have only been four occasions since 2003-04 of a team having more shots on target in a UCL game without scoring than Milan had tonight. Milan themselves were held goalless in 2005 with 13 shots on target against PSV, while Braga and Atlético Madrid (twice) have reached 10 shots on target without scoring.

On an individual level, Krunić finished the match with seven chances created (four from corners) to match Sandro Tonali’s effort from a group-stage match last season against Dinamo Zagreb for the most by a Milan player since 2012-13.

Eddie Howe’s side didn’t have a shot on target until second-half stoppage time and were out-touched in the opposition penalty area 33-10, but an away point against one of last season’s semi-finalists is something for Newcastle to work with to start the competition after a generation away from it.

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