These stats underline Ronaldo and Lewandowski’s memorable evening

Wednesday, November 3, 2021 at 08:54• Yanick Vos • Last update: 09:32

Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski were the absolute stars in the Champions League on Tuesday evening on behalf of Manchester United and Bayern Munich respectively. Ronaldo scored twice against Atalanta to give his side a point in the closing seconds of the game, while Lewandowski scored a hat-trick in the 5-2 win over Benfica. The fact that the two had a memorable evening is also apparent from the statistics of opta.

Ronaldo was important to his team in Bergamo on the stroke of half-time. On a pass from Bruno Fernandes, he signed for the equalizer. Duván Zapata signed for the 2-1 after half-time and for a long time it seemed that Atalanta would keep the three points in-house, but deep into stoppage time Ronaldo was served by Mason Greenwood and he scored from the volley. At 36 years and 270 days, he is now the oldest player ever to score at least two goals for Manchester United in Europe.

The Portuguese attacker passed his trainer on Italian soil on Tuesday evening. In his 303rd appearance in all competitions for Manchester United, he scored goals 126 and 127. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer played 366 games for the Red Devils and was good for 126 goals. In addition, Ronaldo is the first United player to score in four consecutive Champions League games since Ruud van Nistelrooij’s 2002/03 season. However, the former the Dutch-international then ran a nine-game run.

Bayern Munich was a size too big for Benfica on Tuesday evening. The difference was made by Lewandowski, who already scored his fourth hat-trick in the Champions League. Only Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were more often responsible for a hat-trick in the billion-dollar ball: eight times. At 33 years and 73 days, Lewandowski is the fifth oldest player to hit a hat-trick in the tournament after Oliver Giroud (34 years and 63 days), Cristiano Ronaldo and Claudio Pizarro (both 34 years and 35 days).

The duel with Benfica was already special for Lewandowski, because he played in the Champions League for the hundredth time. After Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo, Andrea Pirlo and Toni Kroos, he became the sixth player ever to hit that milestone. However, the Polish striker became the first player to score more than once in the anniversary game.