Goalkeepers scoring last minute equalisers, Bayern Munich and Manchester United trading seven goals, Manchester City trailing and then beating Red Star Belgrade, Arsenal scoring four and PSG two, Real Madrid and Barcelona winning... the UEFA Champions League is well and truly back.
By The Numbers brings you the best stats from the first Matchday 1 of UCL 2023-24:
1
This is the first UCL campaign without either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo for the first time since 2002-03, after 20 consecutive seasons of at least one of them appearing in the competition.
2
Lazio's Ivan Provedel is the 2nd goalkeeper to score a non-penalty goal in the UCL era (4th to score overall). Here's the full list.
Lazio's goalkeeper Ivan Provedel is 1.94M tall, was born in 1994, wears the number 94 on his back and scored in 90+4 minutes to equalise.
Some things are meant to be �� pic.twitter.com/87iiYuVKrA
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) September 20, 2023
3+
This is the first time since December 1978 (under Dave Sexton) that Manchester United have conceded 3+ goals in three consecutive games.
4-0
Arsenal have started a UCL campaign with a win on MD 1 for the first time since 2013-14 (2-1 v Marseille). This was also their biggest opening match victory in the competition since 2010-11 (6-0 v Sporting Braga).
4
This is the first time since 1986-87 (under Ron Atkinson) that Manchester United have lost as many as four of their opening six games of a season in all competitions. In case you were wondering, that's also the season in which a certain Alex Ferguson would later take charge of the club.
5
Barcelona have now won back-to-back games by 5 goals for the first time since March 2017 (3). The last time they won by 5+ goals in the UCL was a game you might remember: against PSG in 2017, where they famously erased a 4-goal aggregate deficit to advance in the KO stage. Remontada, anyone?
5
In the UCL era (since '92), FC Union Berlin are the 5th team to have their debut match come against Real Madrid. The others were Inter Milan (1998), Roma (2001), BATE Borisov (2008) and Zurich (2009). All five lost.
18
Manchester United have now lost 18 of their last 35 away matches in all competitions (51% - W13 D4). Since the beginning of this period in March 2022, the only (ever-present) Premier League side to lose more away games are West Ham (20).
20
Jude Bellingham is the youngest Real Madrid player (20 years, 83 days) with a stoppage-time game-winning UCL goal. But what's fascinating is that this is already Bellingham's second game-winning goal after the 90th minute this season (also scored vs Getafe in LaLiga)
35
On the other end of the spectrum, at 35 years and 29 days Robert Lewandowski is the oldest player to score for Barcelona in the UCL, surpassing Gerard Pique against Dynamo Kyiv in 2021 (34 years and 260 days).
Robert Lewandowski joins Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the only players to reach 100 goals in UEFA club competitions ��
Elite company ���� pic.twitter.com/miJcc9GJmd
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) September 19, 2023
33
Another Lewandowski stat: Antwerp is the 33rd different club that he has scored against in UCL, tying Raul for 4th on the list of players with most teams scored against in the competition's history. Only Benzema (34), Ronaldo (38) and Messi (42) have more.
35
Kylian Mbappe reaches 35 goals for PSG in the UCL (for context, that's as many as Thierry Henry had at Arsenal). The only Frenchman with more goals with a single club in the competition is Karim Benzema for Real Madrid (78).
85
Galatasaray trailed 2-0 vs Copenhagen in the 85th minute before earning a 2-2 draw. The last team to earn a point in the UCL group stage when trailing by multiple goals in the 85th minute was Real Madrid in 2020 vs Borussia Monchengladbach
(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)