2 days Ago By Zenia D'Cunha
European football returned after the international break with an action-packed weekend. Somethings didn't change at all as Robert Lewandowski, Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane and Erling Haaland were among the goals. In FA Cup, Manchester City kept their hopes alive of silverware this season as they reached the semifinals along with Aston Villa , Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest .
Over at La Liga, Barcelona's unbeaten streak reached 20 games and it may just be enough to clinch the very close title race. In Bundesliga, Bayern Munich are cruising as are Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 while Serie A saw both leaders Inter Milan and contenders Napoli keep pace with a 3-point gap. ESPN's By The Numbers brings you the best of stats from weekend's football matches: 7 Manchester City reached their seventh straight FA Cup semifinals, extending the longest streak of any team in the competition's history.
20 This is Manchester City's 20th FA Cup semifinals and 8 of these have come under Pep Guardiola, the most by any team since his arrival in 2016-17. 21 Manchester City has conceded the first goal of a match 21 times in all competitions this season. The only Premier League clubs to do so more this season are Leicester City (25), Manchester Utd (22), and Southampton (22).
1 Marcus Rashford scored his first career goal for Aston Villa (10 matches). This is also his first multigoal game since December 2024 vs. Everton in Premier League with Manchester United.
9 Erling Haaland (9) breaks a tie with Bruno Fernandes (8) for most FA Cup goals in the last 3 seasons by players on Premier League clubs. 3 Erling Haaland has failed to convert 3 of his last 6 penalty kicks taken at club level in all competitions (2 of them saved). 3 Crystal Palace reached their third FA Cup semifinal in the last 10 seasons.
In that span, only Manchester City (7), Chelsea (6) and Manchester United (5) have more semifinal appearances than Palace 6 Crystal Palace have now won 6 straight road games in all competitions, and all 6 without allowing a goal. For historic context, Palace is having one of the best moments in club history. 8 Barcelona have won 8 straight La Liga games.
This is their longest streak since an 11-game winning run between May-Sept. 2024. In terms of single-season streaks, the 8-game run is Barcelona's longest since the 2018-19 season.
Their most recent single season winning run of more than 8 games was back in 2015-16 (12 straight). Can they get there again? 13 Barcelona's first goal was their 13th off set pieces in La Liga this season, which is 2 more than any other club (Villarreal and Athletic, 11 each). 38 Robert Lewandowski has scored 38 goals this season across all competitions, the most of any player in the Top 5 European leagues.
He leads LaLiga with 25 goals this season (3 more than Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappé). Only Mohamed Salah (27) has more this season when it comes to Europe's Top 5 leagues. Lewandowski's 38 goals are also his most in a season across all competitions since scoring 50 in 2021-22 with Bayern (his last with the club).
He has scored 40+ goals in 7 different seasons, all with Bayern Munich so far. 10 Since turning 35 years old, Robert Lewandowski has scored multiple goals in 10 LaLiga matches. In that span, all other players in that age group have done it only 7 times, combined.
33 Kylian Mbappe has scored 33 goals this season in all competitions, tying Rudd van Nistelrooy in 2006-07 and Cristiano Ronaldo for the second-most goals in a player's first season for Real Madrid in all competitions. 387 Luka Modric has played his 387th LALIGA game, breaking a tie with former Real Madrid captain Marcelo. He also played his 580th game as Real Madrid player and could become the 9th Real Madrid player with 600+ games in all competitions.
4 Real Madrid are tied for most comeback wins in La Liga this season at 4. Last season Real Madrid had 7 come-from-behind wins in La Liga, the 2nd most behind Girona's 8. 521 Antoine Griezmann played his 521st career La Liga game, breaking a tie with Lionel Messi (520) for most games all-time by a non Spanish player.
35, 213 Cesar Azpilicueta scored his first career goal in La Liga. With 35 years, 213 days, he become the oldest Atlético Madrid player to score his first goal in LaLiga and the oldest in overall since Edinson Cavani with Valencia in 2022 (35 years, 243 days). 1.
29 Pathé Ciss' goal at 1 minute, 29 seconds is the fastest goal by Rayo Vallecano in LALIGA since Sergio Camello (1:11) in Dec. 2022 vs Girona. 6 Real Betis are on a 6-game LaLiga winning streak, their longest under Manuel Pellegrini; 6 straight league wins for the first time since March 12 to April 19, 2018 (also 6 wins under Quique Setién).
21 Moise Kean has scored a career-high 21 goals this season in all competitions with Fiorentina since joining in the summer from Juventus. Incidentally, Keane did not score once in 20 appearances last year with Juventus. 7 Kenan Yildiz scored his seventh career Serie A goal.
Since making his debut last season, this is the most by any player under the age of 20. 33 Harry Kane has scored 33 goals this season in all competitions, the second-most among players in Europe's Top 5 Leagues (Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski leads). The 33 goals are also the third-most in a single season in his career.
22 Kane scored his 22nd goal in Bundesliga this season (most this season) and snapped a 5-game streak without a goal, the longest streak since joining the club in the 2023-24 season. 19 Kane has now scored against all 19 clubs he has played against in Bundesliga. Only Miroslav Klose has faced more different Bundesliga teams and scored against them all (28).
7 Maximilian Beier has 7 Bundesliga goals this season. The last Dortmund player 22 years or younger with more goals in a season was a certain Jude Bellingham (8 in 2022-23) 38 PSG now have a 38-game unbeaten streak on the road in league play (30 wins, 8 draws), tying the longest run in Europe's top five leagues, held by AC Milan between 1991 and 1993. 19, 299 Désiré Doué became the second-youngest PSG player (19 years and 299 days) to be involved at least 20 goals in all competitions in the 21st century, behind a certain Kylian Mbappé (18 years and 361 days in December 2017).
4 Lionel Messi scored his 4th goal vs. Philadelphia Union. With Inter Miami, he has scored more goals only against Atlanta United, Nashville and New England (5 goals).
(Information from ESPN's Global Sports Research contributed to this report.).
