Norwegian star Manchester City striker Erling Haaland continued to hijack the spotlight and break records in the Champions League, after knocking down the German Leipzig net with five goals, in the second leg of the final price of the tournament.
Haaland's quintet enabled him to equal the feat of Argentina's Lionel Messi and Brazil's Luiz Adriano, after they each managed to score the same number of goals in one game in 2012 and 2014 respectively.
He also grabbed the top scorer in the competition for the current season with 10 goals, after he removed Egyptian Mohamed Salah, Liverpool star, who has eight goals.
⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️
🇳🇴 Erling Haaland
Man City 7-0 Leipzig (2022/23)
🇧🇷 Luiz Adriano
Shakhtar vs BATE (2014/15)
🇦🇷 Lionel Messi
Barcelona vs Leverkusen (2011/12)#UCL pic.twitter.com/ZfS4Sh5Gam
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) March 15, 2023
Reaching his 33rd goal in the Champions League, Haaland became the youngest and fastest player in the history of the competition to score more than 30 goals, in just 25 games.
Spanish newspaper Mundodeportivo described Haaland as clearly becoming a "predatory" goalscorer and outperforming everyone else in the Champions League.
The newspaper relied on figures and data that indicate beyond any doubt that no player throughout the history of the tournament has managed to score this number of goals in just 25 games.
These figures also include the five top scorers since the tournament's first inception in 1955-1956, who are far ahead of Haaland.
Here are the top 5 Champions League scorers in their first 25 games.
Raúl González (11 goals)
The former Real Madrid striker was the tournament's top scorer for a long time, until Messi came first on 25 November 2014, followed by Cristiano Ronaldo, to remove him from the top.
🎯 Raúl scored his 50th #UCL goal #OTD in 2005 courtesy of a pinpoint Beckham cross! 🙌@realmadriden | @RaulGonzalez pic.twitter.com/v9ESLzbEDs
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) September 28, 2020
Over time, Raúl slipped to become the fifth highest scorer in the history of the tournament, having scored just 11 goals in the first 25 games.
Karim Benzema (13 goals)
For 14 years, Karim Benzema has been defending Real Madrid's colours after joining in 2009 from Lyon, during which time he has achieved many achievements in the Merengue shirt.
Benzema has scored 6 goals in 7 games against Liverpool 🔥@Benzema || #UCL pic.twitter.com/RE9iXDUce0
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) March 15, 2023
Benzema has made 147 Champions League appearances for Real Madrid, scoring 88 times, placing him fourth on the competition's top scorers.
Benzema's Champions League figures show that he has scored 13 goals in his first 25 games.
Robert Lewandowski (15 goals)
With three clubs, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, and then Barcelona, the Polish striker appeared in the Champions League.
Robert Lewandowski scored FOUR goals as Dortmund beat Madrid 4-1 #OTD in 2013 🔥🔥🔥#UCL pic.twitter.com/yefP4d0HAC
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) April 24, 2021
Lewandowski played 111 matches, the last of which was Barcelona's match against his former team Bayern Munich in the group stage of the 2022-2023 season, which ended with a 0-3 loss to the "blaugrana", to bid farewell to the Spanish team the championship early.
In total, Lewandowski has scored 91 goals in the competition, 15 of which came in the first 25 games.
Lionel Messi (12 goals)
In the eyes of many, he is the best player ever in the history of football, especially after his success in winning the 2022 World Cup hosted by the State of Qatar.
🇦🇷 Leo Messi scored his 100th #UCL goal five years ago today 🙌 pic.twitter.com/JJWyLgDYTr
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) March 14, 2023
"Flea" Sal and toured with his former team Barcelona in the stadiums in the Champions League, while with his new team Paris Saint-Germain, he bid farewell to the tournament from the round of sixteen for two consecutive seasons (2021-2022, and 2022-2023).
In total, Messi has scored 129 goals in the Champions League, scoring in 163 games, and only 12 conceding in the first 25 European encounters.
Cristiano Ronaldo (no goal)
The Portuguese star is the tournament's top scorer with 140 goals for Manchester United in two spells, Real Madrid and Juventus in 187 games.
Cristiano will not be able to add more goals in his favorite tournament until the summer of 2025, given that he has a contract with Saudi Arabia's Al Nassr until then.
Cristiano Ronaldo on target, 13 years ago today ⚽️#UCL pic.twitter.com/8nKFJDSZAX
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) March 10, 2023
The strange thing is that Cristiano did not know a way to the net in the Champions League in the first 25 games, because in fact he did not score, yes what your eyes read is true, he did not score!