The group stage and Round-of-16 of the UEFA Champions League pose their own challenges, but the quarter-final is where it starts to get serious. With the margin of error reduced to near zero, competing teams take extra care in keeping things tidy at the back, making it incredibly challenging for attackers to find a way through. While ordinary players shy away from taking on such massive challenges, the greatest-ever players thrive on them.
Today, we will take a look at some legendary attackers who have delivered goalscoring masterclasses in the quarter-finals since the tournament’s inception — then called the European Cup — in 1955. Here are five players who have scored the most goals in Champions League history.
#5 Filippo Inzaghi – 9 Goals
Legendary Italian striker, Filippo Inzaghi graced the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals with his presence 12 times, scoring nine times. He represented Juventus and AC Milan in the final eight of the competition.
Inzaghi is one of the seven players to score a hat-trick in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals since the tournament’s remodeling in 1992. The center forward’s triplet came in a second-leg 4-1 victory over Ukrainian outfit Dynamo Kyiv in the 1997-98 campaign.
#4 Raul Gonzalez – 10 Goals
‘The Prince of Real Madrid’, Raul Gonzalez Blanco scored 10 goals in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals in his career. The former Spain international, who currently coaches Real Madrid Castilla, played 17 quarter-final games between Los Blancos and Schalke.
Raul won three UEFA Champions League trophies (1997-98, 1999-2000, 2001-02) in his career, all of which came during his time at Real Madrid. He played 142 matches in the tournament of champions, scoring 71 times and also providing 32 assists.
#3 Lionel Messi – 12 Goals
Arguably the best player in soccer history, Lionel Messi scored 12 goals in 23 matches in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals at Barcelona. The Argentina icon spent two seasons at Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) after leaving the Blaugrana as a free agent in the summer of 2021, but could not push the Parisians beyond the Round of 16.
Messi, who is making history in America after signing for Inter Miami last summer, is the only player in Champions League history — excluding the European Cup era — to score four goals in a quarter-final game. The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner’s heroics came in a 4-1 second-leg victory over Arsenal in the 2009-10 season.
#2 Alfredo Di Stefano – 14 Goals
The man who put Real Madrid on the map, Alfredo Di Stefano scored a whopping 14 goals in the UEFA Champions League — then the European Cup — quarter-finals. The ‘Blonde Arrow’ played 14 quarter-final matches in his career, including a quarter-final decider in the 1961-62 season.
Di Stefano, who played as a second striker, helped Los Blancos to the first five European Cups between the 1955-56 and 1959-60 seasons. The Argentine maverick played 58 European Cup matches, scoring 49 times.
#1 Cristiano Ronaldo – 25 Goals
Mr. Champions League, Cristiano Ronaldo, has topped the list by a landslide, having scored a whopping 25 goals in the quarter-finals over the years. Ronaldo, who currently plies his trade at Al-Nassr, played 22 quarter-final matches across Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Juventus before leaving Europe.
Ronaldo produced some iconic performances in the Champions League quarter-finals, but none can hold a candle to his remarkable hat-trick against Wolfsburg in the 2015-16 season. Thanks to his majestic treble, Real Madrid secured a 3-0 win over the Germans in the second leg, overturning a 2-0 first-leg deficit to proceed to the semi-finals.
The Portugal legend is the only player to score two hat-tricks in the UCL quarter-finals, with his other treble coming against Bayern Munich in the 2016-17 season.
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