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It's been an amazing year in the UEFA Champions League. Europe's premier club competition has produced many incredible moments over the last 12 months that we can't get enough of.
While the knockout stage of the 2020-21 season was intense, the group stage of the current season (2021-22) also delivered immensely. Overall, it was a year that will remain etched in our memories.
Individual records galore in the UEFA Champions League in 2021
As we wrap up the European football calendar year, it's time to look back on what transpired in the Champions League this year. There were many prolific individual scorers, who created records galore.
On that note, here's a look at the five players who registered the most Champions League strikes in 2021:
#5 Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City) - 9 goals
Riyad Mahrez may be a surprise inclusion, but he has been Manchester City's best player in Europe this year.
He played a big part in helping City reach their first Champions League final last season. Mahrez scored key goals in the wins over Borussia Dortmund and PSG, and has continued in much the same vein this season as well.
The Algerian ace added five goals to his tally in the 2021-22 group stage, the most in City's squad. Unsurprisingly, he is also their top goalscorer in the UEFA Champions League this year.
#4 Kylian Mbappe (PSG) - 10 goals
Kylian Mbappe hasn't looked back since bursting onto the European scene in 2016 with AS Monaco. He has scored 30 Champions League goals since then, becoming the youngest player to reach the landmark.
A third of those strikes came this year. Mbappe started with an amazing hat-trick against Barcelona at the Camp Nou in February. That made him only the second visiting player to score a Champions League hat-trick at the Camp Nou.
The Frenchman then struck twice against Bayern Munich as PSG dumped out the holders in the quarter-finals. This season, he has added four more to his tally, netting once apiece against RB Leipzig and City, and twice against Club Brugge on Tuesday.
With such scalps to his name, Mbappe has shown his big-game pedigree once again.
#3 Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) - 10 goals
Liverpool became the first English team in Champions League history to win all six group games in a season, thanks to Mohamed Salah's exploits.
He has netted seven times in six games this season, including four against AC Milan and Atletico Madrid. Only two other players scored more than him this season.
It's also one more than what he managed in the entirety of last season. The Egyptian ace also bagged three goals in last season's knockouts, making it ten for the year.
#2 Sebastian Haller (Ajax) - 10 goals
The best part about Sebastian Haller's ten-goal haul is that unlike all other players on the list, he is playing his debut Champions League campaign. That means the Ivorian striker has scored all his ten goals in the group stage of the current campaign to lead the competition's scoring charts.
What's also unique about his tally is that Haller scored in all six games, a feat previously achieved only by Cristiano Ronaldo (2017-18).
Haller made a rousing start to his Champions League campaign. He scored a quadruple on his competition debut, becoming the only player after Marco van Basten to do so. Suffice to say, he hasn't looked back after that.
#1 Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) - 11 goals
Much of Robert Lewandowski's Champions League goals this year came in the 2021-22 group stage, with the Pole netting nine times.
He fired a rare blank against Barcelona on matchday six. That meant he couldn't join Haller and Ronaldo as the only players in competition history to net in all six group games in a season.
Last season, Bayern Munich were eliminated in the quarter-finals by PSG, with Lewandowski missing both games because of a ligament injury. He did score in both legs of the holders' Round of 16 win against Lazio, though.
