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The first leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinals are over, and boy, was it fun. Real Madrid salvaged a draw against Chelsea at home, while PSG succumbed to a 2-1 loss against Manchester City.
Here are the best stats from the action:
Real Madrid vs. Chelsea
4
Real Madrid have not beaten Chelsea in four meetings (2L, 2D). That’s the most Madrid have faced any team without defeating them in the club’s 119-year history.
5
Karim Benzema has become just the fifth player to score 20 goals in the knockout stages of the UCL. Thomas Muller (24), Robert Lewandowski (26), Lionel Messi (49) and Cristiano Ronaldo (67) are the players above him.
5
This was also Benzema’s fifth career UCL semifinals goal, tied fourth-most all-time with Alessandro del Piero. Only Messi (6), Lewandowski (7), and Ronaldo (13) have more.
11
With this draw, Thomas Tuchel has extended the club record for longest unbeaten away game streak (11 games – 8 wins, 3 losses) for a Chelsea head coach to start their tenure.
33
Benzema is now tied with Raul Gonzalez for third-most different teams scored against in the UCL, with 33. No prizes for guessing who’s one and two — Messi (36) and Ronaldo (35).
71
Benzema has also tied Raul on the all-time UCL top scorer list. He now has 71. Lewandowski has 73, while Ronaldo and Messi have 134 and 120, respectively.
PSG vs. Manchester City
0
This is the first time in a UCL match in which he has started that Kylian Mbappe has had zero shots on goal. In fact, he was so on the sidelines that his 30 touches are the fewest of any starter on either team. City goalkeeper Ederson had 31.
2
Before PSG’s second-half gloom, Marquinhos became just the second team captain to score in consecutive seasons in a UCL semifinal or final. The other man? Gaizka Mendieta, who scored for Valencia in the 2000 and 2001 finals.
2
Pep Guardiola has joined Sir Alex Ferguson as the only managers in UCL history to overcome more than one halftime deficit to win in the semifinals or later (he also did that in the 2015 semifinal vs. Barcelona, for Bayern Munich). Ferguson did it in the 1999 final against Bayern and in the first leg of the 2007 semifinal against AC Milan.
3
Marquinhos is just the third player to score in the quarterfinals and semifinals in consecutive UCL seasons, after Ronaldo (2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14) and Antoine Griezmann (2015-16, 2016-17).
6
This was Guardiola’s sixth UCL knockout come-from-behind win. That breaks a tie at the top of the UCL/European Cup charts with the legendary Jock Stein, who did it five times with Celtic between 1967 and 1972.
9
A stat that bodes well for Manchester City fans — nine of the 10 teams that won the first leg of an aggregate UCL series 2-1 at home have advanced (the only team that did not was Real Madrid, who lost 5-3 on aggregate to Ajax in 2018-19 after winning the first leg 2-1).
18
Manchester City have extended the English top-flight away game winning record to 18 now. They last failed to win on December 12, when they were held to a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford by Manchester United.
62
This was Guardiola’s 62nd career UCL knockout stage match as a head coach — tying with Carlo Ancelotti for most all-time.
(Stats courtesy ESPN’s Stats & Information Group)