Pavlidis shines in Europe, Benfica star faces fierce rival | OneFootball

With the main leagues already into the second half of the season, the usual suspects remain at the top of the scoring charts, such as Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, and Kylian Mbappé. But among the most productive forwards in the seven major European leagues – with Portugal and the Netherlands joining the so-called Big-5 – the Benfica number 14, Vangelis Pavlidis, and Sporting’s Luis Suárez stand out.

According to data released by SportingPedia, when it comes to expected goals (xG), Pavlidis has an advantage over Suárez (3.66 versus 1.63), with the Greek only trailing Harry Kane, the surprising Japanese Ayase Ueda (Feyenoord), and the Kosovar Vedat Muriqi (Mallorca). With two players on this list, Portugal is only surpassed by the Premier League, La Liga, and Bundesliga (each with three top scorers).

Regarding the leading duo in the race for the Golden Boot, there is a crucial difference: while Haaland has just a 0.99 difference between goals scored and expected goals – one of the lowest among all players analyzed – Kane records the highest difference (6.40), which demonstrates the exceptional season of the English star at Bayern.

It’s worth remembering that Vangelis Pavlidis is Benfica’s top scorer, with 24 goals in all competitions, 17 of them in the league — a number that makes him the top scorer in the championship. The Greek international won the award for best player in the league for the month of December.

This season with Benfica, Vangelis Pavlidis – valued at 35 million euros – has played 34 matches: 18 in Liga Portugal Betclic, seven in the Champions League, three in the Portuguese Cup, two in the League Cup, and one in the Super Cup. In his 2,816 minutes on the pitch, he has scored 24 goals and provided three assists.

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