Robert Lewandowski wants to go down in the history of the Champions League. Tonight the Polish striker will have the chance to join a very exclusive club: if he were to score, he would become the third player in history to reach 100 goals in Europe’s top competition. Only Cristiano Ronaldo (140 goals) and Lionel Messi (129) have reached this milestone so far.
The Barcelona striker has scored 99 goals in 124 matches. Lewandowski has a slightly higher goal average (0.79) than the two dominators of the last 20 years and could have already achieved this symbolic goal in the match in Belgrade played at the beginning of November; Hansi Flick, however, replaced him in the second half, after the former Bayern player had already scored a brace: “If I had known before, maybe I wouldn’t have changed him. It’s my fault but we also have to think about the next game.”
Lewandowski, the current top scorer in the competition (5 goals, like Raphinha, Harry Kane and Viktor Gyökeres), scored 17 times with Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, 69 with Bayern and 13 with Barça, where he arrived in 2022.
Here is the all-time ranking of scorers in the top continental competition.
140 goals: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus)
129: Lionel Messi (Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain)
99: Robert Lewandowski (Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Barcelona)
90: Karim Benzema (Lyon, Real Madrid)
71: Raúl González (Real Madrid, Schalke)
56: Ruud van Nistelrooy (PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United, Real Madrid)
54: Thomas Müller (Bayern München)
50: Thierry Henry (Monaco, Arsenal, Barcelona)
49: Kylian Mbappé (Monaco, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid)
48: Zlatan Ibrahimović (Ajax, Juventus, Inter, Barcelona, Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United)
48: Andriy Shevchenko (Dinamo Kiev, Milan, Chelsea)
46: Filippo Inzaghi (Juventus, Milan)