Away games in the UEFA Champions League are incredibly taxing for attackers. They hear boos and jeers from the first blast of the whistle to the last, as opposition fans try every trick up their sleeves to destabilize them. Only a handful manage to rise above the noise and deliver the goods in enemy territory, even fewer can get the job done in knockout games.
Today, we will take a look at a few attackers who have gone down in history books as the most notorious in away matches. Continue reading to meet the 10 players who have scored the most away goals in the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League.
#10 Raul – 7 Goals
Kicking off the list is Real Madrid icon and legendary marksman Raul Gonzales Blanco. The ex-Spain international scored 71 goals in 142 matches in UEFA Champions League. Seven of those goals came in 22 matches away from home.
Raul only represented two clubs in the UEFA Champions League — Real Madrid and Schalke. He played 130 games for Los Blancos, scoring 66 times and providing 29 assists, winning the competition thrice.
#9 Mohamed Salah: 7 Goals
Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah has developed a taste of scoring in away matches, with him bulging the net seven times in 16 UEFA Champions League knockout matches in the opposition’s backyard. Salah, who is expected to leave Liverpool at the end of the 2023-24 season, has played 79 games in the competition between FC Basel, Chelsea, AS Roma, and his current employers, scoring 44 times and providing 15 assists.
The 2017-18 season was the best in Salah’s career as he scored 10 times and provided five assists in 13 appearances. However, it did not matter in the end, as Real Madrid crushed the Reds’ hopes in the final. The following season, he chipped in with five goals and a couple of assists as the Anfield outfit conquered Europe for the sixth time.
#8 Arjen Robben: 8 Goals
One of the finest wingers in Bayern Munich history, Arjen Robben has snagged the eighth place on the list. The Dutch high-flier played 26 knockout matches away from home, scoring an admirable eight times. Robben, who hung up his boots in July 2021, represented PSV Eindhoven, Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich in the competition, but his best matches came for the Bavarians.
Between the 2009-10 and 2018-19 seasons, Robben played 70 matches for Bayern in the Champions League, scoring 25 times and providing 19 assists. He scored four times and claimed a couple of assists as the German powerhouse won the Champions League in the 2012-13 season.
#7 Wayne Rooney: 8 Goals
The only Englishman to feature on this list, Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney was quite a handful in knockout matches, popping up with eight knockout goals in 20 away matches. Unsurprisingly all of his goals came for the Red Devils.
The ex-Manchester United stalwart played 85 Champions League games for the Mancunians across 11 seasons, scoring 30 times and bagging 21 assists. Rooney lifted the Old Big Ears with United in the 2007-08 season, chipping in with four goals in 11 games to help their cause.
#6 Robert Lewandowski: 10 Goals
The third-leading scorer in UEFA Champions League history, Robert Lewandowski has scored 10 goals in 25 away matches. The Barcelona attacker has scored a total of 94 goals in 120 matches across his current club (8 in 14), Bayern Munich (69 in 78), and Borussia Dortmund (17 in 28). Lewandowski scored three goals in nine matches for the Blaugrana in the 2023-24 season before their quarter-final elimination.
The Polish attacker’s sole UEFA Champions League triumph came with Bayern Munich in the 2019-20 season. He scored a career-best 15 goals in 10 matches that season.
#5 Sadio Mane: 11 Goals
Former Liverpool and Bayern Munich winger Sadio Mane proved his mettle time and time again in UEFA Champions League away fixtures. The Senegalese winger, who is currently on Al-Nassr’s payroll, played 15 knockout matches away from home, scoring an impressive 11 times.
The 32-year-old played 64 matches in the UEFA Champions League before leaving for Saudi Arabia last summer, scoring 27 times. He scored 24 in 59 games for Liverpool and the remaining three in nine games for Bayern Munich. Mane scored four goals and provided three assists as the Reds won the Champions League in the 2018-19 season.
#4 Lionel Messi: 12 Goals
Surprisingly, one of the best players in history, Lionel Messi, did not score many away goals in the UEFA Champions League knockout rounds before leaving for the United States in July 2023. The 2022 FIFA World Cup winner only netted 12 times in 38 away matches in the most coveted competition in the world.
Overall, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner played 163 games in the UEFA Champions League, scoring 129 times. Only nine of his 129 goals came for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in 14 appearances. He scored the remaining 120 wearing Barcelona’s colors.
Messi, the second-highest scorer in the competition’s history, has four UEFA Champions League trophies in his cabinet, all of which won as a Barca player.
#3 Karim Benzema: 14 Goals
One of the finest strikers of the 21st century, ex-Real Madrid center-forward Karim Benzema is the third name in the rankings. The French attacker played 36 away matches in the UEFA Champions League knockouts before jetting off to Saudi Arabia in July 2023, scoring 14 times.
Benzema is the fourth-highest scorer in the history of the Champions League, with him netting 90 times in 152 games between Olympique Lyon and Real Madrid. He scored 12 goals in 19 games for Lyon and 78 in 133 for Los Blancos. Benzema won a joint-record five UEFA Champions League trophies with the All-Whites between 2014 and 2022.
#2 Kylian Mbappe: 15 Goals
The youngest player to make the cut, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) attacker Kylian Mbappe has scored a whopping 15 goals in only 14 away matches in the UEFA Champions League knockouts. The last two goals of Mbappe’s tally came on Tuesday (April 16), as the Parisians beat Barcelona 4-1 away from home to move into the semi-finals with a 6-4 aggregate scoreline.
The 25-year-old has so far played 71 matches in the UEFA Champions League, scoring 48 times. Six of his goals came in nine matches for AS Monaco, while the remaining 42 came in 62 matches for Les Parisiens.
#1 Cristiano Ronaldo: 25 Goals
Rightly called “Mr. Champions League”, Cristiano Ronaldo sits at the summit, having bagged a cool 25 goals in 41 away knockout matches in the tournament of champions. Overall, the former Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Juventus attacker scored a record 67 goals in the knockout stages before leaving Europe in January 2023.
Ronaldo, who is currently plying his trade at Al-Nassr, has played 197 Champions League games, scoring 140 goals. No player in history has played more games or scored more goals than the 39-year-old. The Portugal icon has won the competition five times, once with Manchester United and four times with Real Madrid.
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