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What's the story?
The Champions League group stages are officially over and we can now look forward to the Round of 16 in the knockout stages that will begin next year. As well as seeing several epic matches in the world's most elite competition, we also saw a few standout players.
Robert Lewandowski and Erling Braut Haaland have been the two best players in front of goal with 10 and 8 goals scored in group stages respectively. Up until this week they had scored in every match of the group stages and with the final game to go, they had a chance to equal a record set by none other than Cristiano Ronaldo.
However, both players failed to score in the 6th match, thus making sure that Ronaldo stands alone.
In case you didn't know...
Ronaldo is arguably the greatest player ever in the Champions League. The Portuguese owns virtually every meaningful record in the elite club competition, including being the first and only man to score in every group stage game in a single season - a few he achieved in 2017-18.
The heart of the matter
Lewandowski and Haaland have been the two most prolific players in Europe this season and are locked in an unexpected battle for goalscoring supremacy. Their exploits have been equally productive on the domestic stage as well as in Europe.
While we expect this kind of play from Lewandowski, it has been a genuine surprise seeing Haaland seemingly score for fun against some of Europe's best teams. But on the verge of equaling Ronaldo's record before his 20th birthday, the Norwegian was unable to penetrate Liverpool's defences in a 2-0 loss to the defending champions.
Lewandowksi on the other hand was not even granted a chance to equal Ronaldo's record as he was kept on the bench for their game against Tottenham Hotspur, and strangely remained there for the entirety of the match. That said, given Bayern's clean 3-1 win over Tottenham, he wasn't particularly needed.
What's next?
Although it looked like at least one of the two players would equal Ronaldo's impressive record this season, neither of them were unable to do so. The Portuguese's feat will likely remain unrivaled for a while yet, thus reinforcing his incredible Champions League credentials.
Also check out: Champions League Schedule Champions League table Champions league top scorers
