FC Barcelona lock horns with FC Copenhagen tonight in the UEFA Champions League, hoping to safe a top-eight end and progress on to the Round of 16.
Unless one thing drastic occurs, Robert Lewandowski seems poised to begin because the No. 9 for the Blaugrana tonight on the Spotify Camp Nou, with Ferran Torres solely not too long ago coming back from an damage.
Advertisement
Lewandowski eyes Messi record
Approaching his thirty eighth birthday, Lewandowski continues to make historical past. He may add one other chapter tonight if he scores in his first profession match in opposition to FC Copenhagen.
The Barcelona ahead would add the Danish aspect to the record of groups he has scored in opposition to in Europe’s high competitors.
Last week, he turned Slavia Prague into his thirty ninth sufferer, transferring previous the 38 of Cristiano Ronaldo and shutting in on the 40 achieved by Lionel Messi with Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. Scoring tonight would take him degree with the previous Barça captain.
The Pole had not but opened his account on this version of the European Cup. With his objective within the Czech capital, he has now scored in 15 consecutive Champions League seasons. He is the third-highest scorer within the competitors’s historical past, sharing the rostrum with Cristiano and Messi.
Lewandowski is a prolific scorer within the Champions League. (Photo by Gabriel Kuchta/Getty Images)
Advertisement
Ronaldo leads with 140 objectives in 183 matches, a mean of 0.76 per sport, the identical as Lewandowski, who has 106 objectives in 139 appearances for Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and Barcelona. Between them sits Messi, with 129 objectives in 163 matches.
At his age, catching them total is unrealistic, however Lewandowski may nonetheless climb the rating of Barcelona gamers with probably the most objectives within the European Cup.
Messi’s 129 objectives are out of attain, however Lewandowski already has 20 in 33 matches as a Barcelona participant, the identical complete as Luis Enrique achieved in 41 video games. He is now solely behind Luis Suarez (25), Rivaldo (25), Neymar (21) and Patrick Kluivert (21).
He has already moved forward of legends reminiscent of Samuel Eto’o, who scored 18 objectives in 40 European Cup matches for Barcelona. Hristo Stoichkov scored 15 in 30 matches, Pedro added 15 in 61, and Ronaldinho left for Milan with 14 in 35.