[ad_1]
Another game for Manchester City forward Sergio Agüero, another goalscoring milestone to celebrate.
When the 32-year-old Argentine forward found the net with a penalty in Wednesday’s 3-1 comeback against Porto, it was for his 40th goal in the Champions League, and all but five of that loot went to his current club. .
Aguero joins an elite roster of shooters, becoming the fourteenth player to reach that milestone since the competition was renamed in 1992.
He has now scored a total of 255 goals in 372 appearances for City, extending his record as the club’s top scorer.
But while his phenomenal loot cannot be questioned, his broader impact on the Champions League is somewhat less compelling when compared to the company that keeps at the top of their scoring charts: all but two of the players per on top of it they have won it. at least once.
| Player / rank | Games | Goals | Games brought to 40 (range) |
| 1. Cristiano Ronaldo | 170 | 130 | 82 (11) |
| 2. Lionel Messi | 144 | 116 | 61 (= 2) |
| 3. Raúl | 142 | 71 | 75 (9) |
| 4. Robert Lewandowski | 91 | 68 | 61 (= 2) |
| 5. Karim Benzema | 121 | Sixty-five | 67 (4) |
| 6. Ruud van Nistelrooy | 73 | 56 | 45 (1) |
| 7. Thierry Henry | 112 | fifty | 73 (8) |
| = 8. Zlatan Ibrahimovic | 120 | 48 | 101 (14) |
| = 8. Andriy Shevchenko | 100 | 48 | 72 (= 6) |
| = 10. Thomas Muller | 116 | 46 | 92 (13) |
| = 10. Filippo Inzaghi | 81 | 46 | 69 (5) |
| 12. Didier Drogba | 92 | 44 | 79 (10) |
| 13. Alessandro del Piero | 89 | 42 | 83 (12) |
| 14. Sergio Agüero | 72 | 40 | 72 (= 6) |
A great proportion of goals, but why are they exhausted?
Agüero’s raw numbers are not in doubt, starting with his consistency: since his Champions League debut with Atlético de Madrid in 2008, he has participated in the competition in 12 of the 13 possible seasons, and has scored at least once in each of them. with an overall record that is better than one goal every other game.
Along with Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Robert Lewandowski, Agüero is one of five players who scored each season between 2011-12 and 2019-20; he and Messi are the only two who have already left the mark. this campaign.
In terms of time, Agüero is the sixth fastest player to reach 40 goals if his games played are counted.
Nor can its efficiency be criticized. Agüero climbs from 14th place to ninth in the standings considering his goals-per-minute ratio, with one goal every 127 minutes.
This is not a surprise when you consider that nationally he leads the way in this regard above Alan Shearer and everyone else on the Premier League all-time list, with a goal every 108 minutes.
| Player / rank | Goals | Minutes / goal |
| = 1. Mario Gómez | 26 | 102 |
| = 1. Lionel Messi | 116 | 102 |
| 3. Harry Kane | twenty | 104 |
| 4. Ruud van Nistelrooy | 56 | 109 |
| = 5. robert Lewandowski | 68 | 114 |
| = 5. Cristiano Ronaldo | 130 | 114 |
| 7. Filippo Inzaghi | 46 | 119 |
| 8. Marco Simone | twenty | 123 |
| 9. Sergio Agüero | 40 | 127 |
| 10. Karim Benzema | Sixty-five | 130 |
| Players with 20 or more goals in the Champions League |
Only when you analyze WHEN Agüero’s European goals have come, does his record begin to waver.
Of his 40 goals, 30 have come in group matches and another eight in the last 16. He has only achieved one in the quarter-finals or later, against Tottenham in 2019, a statistic surely linked to City’s struggles to overcome. that point.
It is not just the case that Agüero’s frequent injury problems have denied him the opportunity to increase his account in the later stages: since 2016, City have played nine games in four quarter-finals and one semi-final, and have only been lost two of them.
But he’s played far fewer of those games than most other names to reach the 40-goal mark.
And for whatever reason, when he’s gotten there, he’s simply been less effective than usual at a time when his team has possibly needed him the most, with his goal-per-minute ratio dropping to one every 543 minutes over the games in the last eight onwards.
| Player / rank | Games played | Goals | Minutes played | Minutes per goal |
| 1. Cristiano Ronaldo | 49 | 42 | 4,508 | 107 |
| 2. Lionel Messi | 41 | twenty | 3,552 | 178 |
| = 3. Filippo Inzaghi | 2. 3 | 13 | 1,702 | 131 |
| = 3. Andriy Shevchenko | 26 | 13 | 2,253 | 173 |
| = 3. Raul | 31 | 13 | 2,751 | 212 |
| 6. Robert Lewandowski | 22 | 12 | 1,878 | 157 |
| = 7. Didier Drogba | 25 | eleven | 2,173 | 198 |
| = 7. Thomas Muller | 36 | eleven | 2,698 | 245 |
| = 9. Alessandro Del Piero | 18 | 8 | 1,543 | 193 |
| = 9. Karim Benzema | 28 | 8 | 1,854 | 232 |
| = 11. Ruud van Nistelrooy | 6 | 4 | 522 | 131 |
| = 11. Thierry Henry | twenty-one | 4 | 1,492 | 373 |
| = 11. Zlatan Ibrahimovic | 17 | 4 | 1,423 | 356 |
| 14. Sergio Agüero | 7 | one | 543 | 543 |
Is this Agüero’s last chance?
The fact that City do not win the Champions League or even reach a final is not Agüero’s fault, of course, but it means that, like his club, he currently has a glaring omission in his otherwise illustrious. CV.
At the moment, it appears that he is missing a defining moment in Europe to equal his famous goal against QPR which earned him the first of his four national league titles with City in 2012.
Their biggest contribution to City in the Champions League so far is probably their hat-trick in the group stage in a spectacular comeback against Bayern Munich in 2014, rather than any of their nine goals in the round of 16 in ahead.
That’s still enough to make him the 21st top scorer for knockout goals, but they have come in disappointing losses to Barcelona, Monaco (two goals) and Spurs, or what must be regarded as less than momentous Dynamo Kiev victories, Basel and Schalke (three goals).
It feels like a bit of a disappointing showreel for a player of his ability and while there’s still time for Aguero to fix it and create a more meaningful European legacy with an iconic night of his own, it may be running out.
He’s out of contract next summer and this season could be his last chance to cement his status as a true Champions League legend.
One way to do that would be to finally get his hands on the famous trophy, but can he help City reach the final in Istanbul while maintaining his goal rate this time around?
