The UEFA Champions League is back, and it's back with a bang. Real Madrid fought their way to a 1-0 win away at Leipzig, Manchester City dominated Copenhagen away in a 3-1 win, Lazio stunned Bayern Munich 1-0 and PSG were all over Real Sociedad in the second half of their tie in Paris as they won 2-0.
ESPN's By The Numbers brings you the best stats from the UCL round-of-16 matches:
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This is just the second time in a UCL knockout stage match that PSG have faced no shots on target (Sociedad had 9 shots at goal), after their first leg against Real Madrid at the same stage of the 2021/22 season.
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Also having no shots on goal was Bayern Munich. In fact, the last time Bayern Munich failed to record a shot on goal in a UCL match was in the 2019 round of 16 first leg vs Liverpool. They drew that game 0-0 at Liverpool and lost the reverse leg 3-1 at home.
On a related note, Bayern's 17 shots today are the most by a team in a UCL game that failed to record a shot on target since 2010-11 [since we started collecting this data].
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Magnus Mattsson's goal for Copenhagen vs Man City was the first UCL KO Stage goal scored by a Danish club.
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Lazio have won a match in the knockout stage of the UCL for only the second time in their history- after a 1-0 win v Valencia in 2000. They are also the first Italian team to beat Bayern in a European competition since Inter Milan did it in 2011.Magnus Mattsson's goal for Copenhagen vs Man City was the first UCL KO Stage goal scored by a Danish club.
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Valentine's Day and red, eh? Dayot Upamecano is only the third player to receive a red card in the UCL on Valentine's Day, after Roque Junior (2001, Milan vs PSG) and Benjamin Pavard (2023, Bayern Munich vs PSG).
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Real Sociedad have failed to score in five consecutive games in all competitions for the second time in their history, the first time since February-March 1973 (also five).
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Manchester City are the first team in UCL history to score 3+ goals in seven consecutive matches.
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Kylian Mbappe has scored eight goals in eight Champions League games against Spanish opponents (4 vs Barcelona, 3 vs Real Madrid and now 1 vs Real Sociedad). That's the joint-most he's scored against clubs from a single country (along with clubs from Germany).
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Kylian Mbappe is the first player to score at least one goal in 10 consecutive games started at home in UCL history.
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Both Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva have seen each of their last 10 UCL goals come in the knockout stages. The only person to have scored more during such a run, where their goals all came only in KOs only, was Karim Benzema (a run of 14 between March 2022 and April 2023).
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Kevin De Bruyne is the fourth player to score at least 10 goals in the knockout stages of the UCL since 2019-20, along with Karim Benzema (17), Erling Haaland (13) and Robert Lewandowski (11).
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This is a remarkable stat that underlines Bayern's struggles this season: Thomas Tuchel has lost 10 of his 43 competitive matches as Bayern coach, which is already as many defeats as his predecessor Julian Nagelsmann suffered in 84 games in charge of the club.
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Kylian Mbappe has been directly involved in 38 goals in 30 appearances this season (31 goals, seven assists); the most of any player in Europe's big five leagues across all competitions.
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Kylian Mbappe (44) has now broken a tie with Raul (43) for second most UCL goals by a player 25 years or younger. Who has the most, you ask? One Lionel Messi... with 59.
(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)