Matchday 3 of the UEFA Champions League will take place tonight and tomorrow. For the German teams (games to kick-off at 20:45 CEST), important points are at stake in their quest to qualify for the last 16. Whilst FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund have started well with two wins from two, there’s pressure on both Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Schalke 04. How do the German teams and players compare to the rest? Goals, passes, cards- DFB.de takes a quick look at the statistics from the first two matchdays.
With 45 attempts, FC Bayern have had the most shots of any of the 32 teams and are followed by Borussia Dortmund and Sporting Lisbon, who have both had 42. Bayer Leverkusen and Schalke 04 sit in seventh and eighth place respectively after both having 36 shots. However, half of Leverkusen’s shots have been off target, with BVB being the only team to have missed the opposition goal on more occasions (20).
In terms of possession, FC Bayern (66%) and FC Barcelona (64%) are the top two teams in this category. This dominance is also reflected in their passing statistics. Four players from the German record holders feature in the rankings for the most completed passes: Philipp Lahm (173), Medhi Benatia (172) and David Alaba (167). But the leader is Xabi Alonso, with the midfielder completing 212 passes in the first two games, with a pass completion rate of 91%.
Ginter hasn’t misplaced a pass
But Germany international Matthias Ginter exceeds the Spaniard, with a pass completion rate of 100%. The Dortmund defender did so in the 45 minutes that he played against Arsenal, where he made 16 passes. Another one to watch on matchday 3 is Gerard Piqué from FC Barcelona, who has found a teammate with a pass on 64 occasions so far.
It’s also interesting to take a look at the number of passes made by the teams as a whole. Whilst FC Bayern (1406) and FC Barcelona (1327) have had the most completed passes, they have to admit defeat to both FC Schalke 04 and Ajax, who have a pass completion rate of 93%.
Two FC Porto players lead the scoring charts, alongside Danny Welbeck from Arsenal: Jackson Martinez and Yacine Brahimi, with all three players having scored on three occasions. In terms of German players, Thomas Müller, Jérôme Boateng and Stefan Kießling have all scored once. BVB striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is also on the scoring charts for his goal against Arsenal, but he has also had the most shots of any player in the Champions League with 6.
But Aubameyang and his team are at the top of the charts for something positive. Dortmund have only received one yellow card and have only conceded 20 fouls so far and are therefore the most disciplined team in the Champions League. The German teams have collected eleven yellow cars between them. Minnows Ludogrets Razgrad have shown their aggressive side, having collected nine yellow cards and giving away 27 fouls. Only two players have been shown red cards so far and they have both been goalkeepers: Artur (Benfica) and Wojciech Szczesny (Arsenal).