Paris Saint-Germain made all the headlines for the right reasons after defeating Bayern 5-4 in the UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg on Tuesday.
Braces from Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and a solo effort from Joao Neves have put the French capital giants in the driving seat to reach consecutive finals, which would be a first for a French club in the history of the competition.
Here are some interesting stats from the outcome of the nine-goal epic at the Parc des Princes.
- PSG have scored 43 goals in the Champions League this season and are two shy of Barcelona’s record during the 1999-2000 campaign (45 goals).
- PSG captain Marquinhos made his 120th Champions League appearance, equalling the record of a Brazilian held by Real Madrid legend Roberto Carlos.
- Portugal left-back Nuno Mendes became the youngest Portuguese player to reach 50 Champions League appearances at 23 years 313 days, beating the previous record previously held by compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo (24 years 83 days).
- PSG’s victory over Bayern was their fourth in the Champions League semi-finals, which is more than all the other French clubs combined (one for Nantes and two for AS Monaco).
- This is the eighth win in the first leg of a Champions League knockout for PSG since Luis Enrique took over in 2023. The Parisians club have never been knocked out of the competition under the Spanish coach when leading in the first leg.
- Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is the second PSG player to scorer the 10 Champions League goals in a season, matching Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s tally during the 2013-2014 campaign. The Georgian has also scored in every round this season.
- Ousmane Dembele has scored 11 goals and provided seven assists in the Champions League knockout phase across three seasons for PSG, making him the player involved in most goals for the club in that round of the competition.
