From Inter to Napoli and Ajax, and from Diogo Costa to Edin Dzeko and Giovanni Simeone, these are, according to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS - in Greece it is represented by Manos Staramopoulos), the data that characterized the 5th matchday in the first four groups (1-4) of the UEFA Champions League:

* Diogo Costa (Porto), who saved Noah Lang's penalty in the away match against Club Brugge (0-4), became the first goalkeeper to save 3 penalties in one Champions League season.

* Inter, with a 4-0 win against Viktoria Plzen, equaled the top scorers. home wins in the Champions League. They were preceded by those, against Artemia on November 23, 2005 and Werder Bremen on September 29, 2010 with the same score.

* Edin Dzeko (Inter) found the net in his 5th consecutive Champions League appearance against Viktoria Plzen. Only Cristiano Ronaldo had achieved the same before. The Portuguese has twice scored 5+ goals against one team in UCL games: 7 against Juventus and 6 against Ajax.

* Napoli (after a 3-0 win against Rangers) reached 20 goals in 5 matches. No Italian club has scored as many goals even for the entire group stage in UCL history.

* Giovanni Simeone (Napoli) has scored 4 goals in his first 4 Champions League matches. Only one Argentinian player has achieved the feat in the entire history of the competition, his father Diego Simeone.

* Ajax have played against Liverpool (0-3) with their oldest starting line-up in Champions League history (27 years and 295 days - average).

The 2nd day…

Meanwhile the exclusion from the continuation of the knockout games of the Champions League (round of 16) for three Spanish teams, Barcelona, ​​Sevilla and Atlético Madrid, is the biggest Spanish failure in the history of the Champions League.

* For the first time in the history of the UCL, three Spanish teams (Barcelona,​​Atlético, Sevilla) are eliminated in the group stage and in fact all three before the last matchday.

* Barcelona are eliminated in the (first) UCL group stage for the 5th time. For the 2nd time in fact since 1997, before playing her 5th game in the group and for the 2nd time in two consecutive seasons (after 1997 & 1998).

* Barcelona only lost 2 home games by 3+ goals in the first 27 years of the Champions League. This has happened 4 times in the last 2 years (0-3 vs Juventus, 1-4 vs Paris Saint-Germain, twice 0-3 vs Bayern).

* Barcelona have lost all of their last 6 games against Bayern, with an aggregate goal difference of 4-22.

* For the 3rd time in Champions League history, Barcelona have not had a single shot on target in a match. All 3 times were within the last 13 months (vs Bayern 0-3 on 14 Sep 2021, vs Benfica 0-3 on 29 Sep 2021 and again vs Bayern 0-3 yesterday).

* Robert Lewandowski has suffered as many defeats (3) in his 5 Champions League games with Barcelona as in his last 43 Champions League games with Bayern.

* Lewandowski is eliminated in the Champions League group stage for the first time since 2011-12 (which was his first appearance in the competition, with Borussia Dortmund). He had 10 straight qualifiers after that.



* Julian Nagelsmann (Bayern) became the first manager to win 4 matches with Barcelona in Champions League history. Jose Mourinho is next with 3 wins.