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UEFA Champions League or UCL is the biggest competition in European football. Every season, some of the very best players across the continent go head-to-head with their clubs for continental glory here.
Like any other competition, goals win games in the Champions League but not all goals have the same importance. Goals in the knockout stage of the competition assume greater importance as they could end up deciding the fate of the teams.
With the round of 16 fixtures for this season commencing on Tuesday, let's take a look at the highest-scoring players in the knockout stages of UCL to date.
#5 Andriy Shevchenko - 18 goals in UCL knockout stage
Karim Benzema, Raul and Andriy Shevchenko are all tied for fifth spot among knockout stage goalscorers with 18 goals. But the Ukrainian striker takes the spot thanks to his superior goals/game ratio (0.56).
Shevchenko enjoyed the best spell of his career with AC Milan. He won the Champions League in the 2002-03 campaign while also finishing as the runners-up in the 2004-05 campaign.
He finished as the top scorer in the competition in his final season with the Serie A club. He scored nine goals in the 2005-06 campaign as the club lost out to Barcelona in the semi-finals. He also made it to the final of the 2007-08 UCL campaign with Chelsea but struggled to find his shooting boots with the English club.
#4 Thomas Muller - 24 goals in UCL knockout stage
Thomas Muller is one of the few one-club players of his generation, having made a name for himself with Bayern Munich. He is well-known for his assist-providing skills but also scored a lot of goals.
He is just one of just eight players to have scored 50 or more goals in the UCL. Thanks to his intelligent runs and positioning, he ends up in good goalscoring positions every now and then.
One could say that goalscoring is one of the underappreciated aspects of his game. He won the Golden Boot award in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, scoring five goals alongside Wesley Sneijder, David Villa and Diego Forlan.
He has also won the top-scorer's award in the DFB Pokal twice, in the 2010 and 2014 editions. The two-time Champions League winner's consistency has helped him score regularly in the competition, with roughly half of his strikes coming in the knockout stage.
#3 Robert Lewandowski - 26 goals in UCL knockout stage
Robert Lewandowski began his UCL journey with Borussia Dortmund. He took them to their first Champions League final in 2013 since their triumph in the 1996-97 season. He scored four goals against Real Madrid in the semi-final first leg, breaking the Spanish club's record of never conceding a hat-trick at UCL. However, they ended up losing in the final to his current club Bayern Munich.
He is third in the all-time goalscoring charts in the competition with 82 goals with roughly a third of the goals coming in the knockout stage. He is one of four players to have hit double-digit figures in the group stage of the competition. He scored 10 goals in the group stage of the 2019-20 campaign and went on to finish as the top scorer with 15 goals that season.
The Polish striker is a fine finisher and has nine goals to his name this season already. He is expected to hit a double-digit tally of goals yet again this season.
#2 Lionel Messi - 49 goals in UCL knockout stage
No surprises here, as Lionel Messi, the player with the second-most goals in the UCL, also ranks second in the list of goalscorers in the knockout stage. He is only behind his long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo in the all-time goalscoring rankings with 125 goals.
Messi leads the way with 76 goals in the group stage fixtures and has also scored in the knockout stage with a goals per game ratio of 0.67. He helped Barcelona to four Champions League titles in his 16-year-long association with the club.
He will now play his first knockout stage fixture for Paris Saint-Germain this season against Real Madrid on Tuesday. He is a key player for them as they chase their first-ever Champions League trophy.
#1 Cristiano Ronaldo - 67 goals in UCL knockout stage
Cristiano Ronaldo rarely disappoints in the Champions League. He is the all-time leading goalscorer in the competition (140 goals). He also holds the record for the most goals in a single campaign (17 goals in the 2013-14 campaign).
The Portuguese player, who turned 37 earlier this month, has won the competition more times than any other player (5). While he has not made it past the quarter-finals since the 2017-18 campaign, he is one player to watch out for in the knockout stages.
