There are dates that at the time are seen as capricious and that over time become curious and revealing. In 2011, Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were immersed in their titanic duel. And yet, on the same day of the Champions League, and despite the fact that their respective teams, Barça and Madrid, won, the two beasts were left dry.
On October 19, 2011, Barcelona defeated Viktoria Pilsen 2-0 at the Camp Nou. Iniesta and Villa scored. “Leo has managed to make the news when he doesn’t score,” said Pep Guardiola, tenant of the Barcelona bench. 24 hours earlier, Real Madrid had beaten Lyon 4-0 and the Portuguese didn’t find the net either.
From Germany to Barcelona
15 goals with Barça, 69 with Bayern and 17 with Borussia Dortmund
On the other hand, that night of October 19, in Athens, Robert Lewandowski did score, who could not prevent Borussia Dortmund’s defeat at the home of Valverde’s Olympiacos. It was the first goal in the Champions League for the tall Polish striker, who at 23 years old, showed a lot of promise.
Thirteen years later, Barça’s number nine became the third player to reach triple-digit scorers in the history of the competition. The first two in that classification took a step aside: Messi (129 goals, the last in 2022) plays in Miami and Cristiano (140, the last in 2021) plays in the Saudi Arabian league. But Lewandowski is still going strong at 36 years old.
Specialist from the penalty spot
Of the hundred goals, 17 have come from eleven meters
In Montjuïc he celebrated his 100th, from a penalty, and then his 101st, already in added time, in the only two shots he made on Tuesday against Brest. Where he puts his eye, he puts the ball. The Cruella de Vil of the goal.
It is his twentieth double in the Champions League, where he also has three hat-tricks and two pokers (against Madrid and Red Star).
Thanks to his sense of smell and effectiveness (0.80 goals per game), but also to his determination and his physique, even he himself is surprised by his numbers and longevity. The 101 goals are synonymous with abundance but also denote his influence. Because his teams have only lost three games of the 67 in which he has scored. Something so rare that it hasn’t happened since 2017.
Only three defeats in 67 scoring games
The last time the forward scored in the Champions League and his team lost was in April 2017.
With Borussia he scored 17 goals in the top continental competition and reached the 2013 final. And in 2014 he joined Bayern, which had deprived him of being champion. With the Bavarian giant, not even because he spent eight seasons, he scored 67 goals and won the title he was missing.
In 2020, in Lisbon, he became the fifth Pole to win the European Cup after the legendary Boniek (1985 with Juventus) and the goalkeepers Mlynarczyk (1987 with Porto), Dudek (2005 with Liverpool) and Kuszczak ( 2008 with United). That season was his best season with 15 goals… under Hansi Flick.
Tied with Begiristain and Kocsis with 81
With the double against Brest, he is now among the thirty best filmmakers in the history of the Blaugrana club
On the verge of turning 34, he packed his bags to land at Barça, with whom he signed for four seasons (until 2026). It was a request from Xavi but in the first campaign they did not make it past the group stage and in the second they lost in the quarterfinals. This summer he reunited with Flick – with whom he shares an agent, Pini Zahavi – and Lewandowski has skyrocketed his performance again.
He is the only one who has started in all 19 official matches (more than 1,500 minutes). There are seven goals in the Champions League and 22 in total in just four months. With the double against Brest, Lewandowski has 81 Blaugrana goals and is now among the top 30 official scorers in Barça history, equaling Begiristain, Kocsis and Arocha.
#Lewandowski #joys
