🏆 Are you not entertained? Champions League goal fest hits new high | OneFootball

The Champions League has always been a spectacle. It represents football of the highest quality. Since last season, the best of the best have been competing in a new format. League phase instead of group phase. The UEFA expected this measure to, among other things, enhance the spectacle. 

Yesterday's matchday delivered exactly that. The nine matches resulted in a total of 43 goals. This is a new matchday record for a CL evening. On average, there were 4.8 goals per match yesterday. 

If Kairat Almaty and FC Pafos hadn't settled for a goalless draw, the "old" record from November 2024 would have been surpassed even more clearly. Back then, 41 goals were scored. 

In the two matches involving German teams alone, there were 15 goals. PSG was the most prolific team of the evening with seven goals. The defending champion at times completely outplayed Bayer Leverkusen. 

The fact that the record for individual matchdays has been shattered twice within a year after the CL reform is, of course, partly due to the additional match per matchday.

The expansion of the participant field to 36 teams means that nine matches are now played on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Exceptions are the first matchday, which was spread over three days, and the upcoming eighth matchday, where all 18 matches will be held on one day (January 28). These XXL matchdays were excluded from the record consideration. 

One can certainly debate the necessity of the CL reform and also the question of which teams benefit the most from it divides the opinions of many football fans. However, what cannot be denied is the fact that from matchday to matchday in the league phase, we are treated to an exhilarating goal fest. As the Russell Crowe meme rightly asks: Are you not entertained?

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 LISELOTTE SABROE