FIFA.com’s latest weekly stats review throws the spotlight on a trio of new South American champions, in-form Watford and the high-scoring stars of Barcelona, Napoli and Real Madrid.
50Serie A goals was the milestone reached and then passed by Gonzalo Higuain in just his 86th appearance in the Italian top flight. The Argentinian claimed his fifth brace of the season with goals number 50 and 51 in Napoli’s 3-1 win over Atalanta on Sunday. He has now scored 16 in just 17 league outings this season. That impressive tally leaves him second only to Borussia Dortmund’s 18-goal Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang across Europe’s top five leagues, and is the best seen at this stage of a Serie A season since Luca Toni – then of Fiorentina - in 2005/06. Napoli’s other goal, meanwhile, came from a player in considerably less prolific form. Marek Hamsik’s strike, in fact, ended a mammoth 1392-minute scoring drought – his longest goalless run since moving to Serie A in 2004.
15league titles was the landmark reached by Atletico Nacional on Sunday, establishing them as Colombia’s record champions. The Medellin outfit beat Atletico Junior 3-2 on penalties in a tense Liga Aguilla final and, in doing so, surpassed Millonarios, with whom they had previously shared the record of 14. Atletico Nacional are certainly established as the dominant force of the current era, having won four of the last six Colombian championships. There were less predictable champions elsewhere in South America though, nowhere more so than in Bolivia, where Sport Boys edged out record champions Bolivar to win the first title of their 61-year history. This Apertura championship represented a remarkable success story for a team who only last season needed a play-off to avoid relegation. There was also a landmark title triumph for FBC Melgar of Peru, who became champions for just the second time – 34 years after their first.
10goals was the unthinkable tally amassed by Real Madrid in their match against Rayo Vallecano on Sunday. In doing so, Rafa Benitez’s men became the first team in Spain’s top flight to hit double figures in a match since 1960, when Los Merengues themselves – with Puskas, Di Stefano et al in their pomp - thrashed Elche 11-2. Sunday’s scoreline fell just one short of that mark, but was nonetheless just the fourth time in Real’s history that they have scored ten or more in a competitive fixture, with Barcelona (11-1, 1943) and Las Palmas (10-1, 1959) their other victims. They are also the first team in any of Europe’s top five leagues to achieve this feat in the last three decades, with Borussia Monchengladbach’s 10-0 win over Eintracht Braunschweig in 1984 the most recent prior instance. Real’s ‘BBC’ frontline were responsible for nine of the ten goals – a record for the trio – with Gareth Bale scoring four in a single league match for the first time in his entire career. The Welshman, who doubled his Liga tally for the season in the process, duly became the first Madrid player - other than Cristiano Ronaldo, of course – to score four or more in a single game since Gonzalo Higuain against Malaga in November 2008.
5goals in just two games at Japan 2015 saw Luis Suarez set a new single-edition record at the FIFA Club World Cup. The Uruguayan became the first player to score a hat-trick at the competition in Barcelona’s semi-final win and went on to become just the third – after Lionel Messi (2011) and Filippo Inzaghi (2007) – to claim a brace in a Club World Cup final. In doing so, he surpassed the previous single-edition benchmark of four set by Denilson of Pohang Steelers in 2009. Messi was also on target in the final, becoming the first player to score in six difference club competitions within a single calendar year on two separate occasions, having previously managed this feat in 2011. Furthermore, this latest Club World Cup provided the 26th winner’s medal of theBarça icon’s glittering career, establishing him as the most decorated Argentinian player in history. He is, however, off the pace of 28 major titles set by team-mate Andres Iniesta, with the midfielder having equalled the Spanish record tally of old comrade Xavi with this latest conquest.
3unanswered Watford goals on Sunday handed Liverpool their heaviest defeat to a newly promoted side in over two decades. Not since an identical 3-0 loss to Newcastle United in November 1993 had the Reds been so soundly beaten in such a fixture, with Watford’s fine win continuing an excellent run of form. It was the Hornets’ fourth straight Premier League victory and ensures that, even at this early stage of the season, they have already equalled their points tally from their last top-flight campaign in 2006/07. The star of their rise to seventh in the table has been Nigerian striker Odion Ighalo, who has struck five times in his last four home appearances and, with 27 league goals in 2015, ranks as the year’s highest scorer across England’s top four divisions.