Cristiano Ronaldo set a new record with his 178th Champions League appearance on Wednesday night.
The Portugal star passed his former Real Madrid team-mate Iker Casillas and marked the occasion by scoring Manchester United’s late winner against Villarreal.
Here, the PA news agency looks at Ronaldo’s record-setting career in the competition.
Appearances
Ronaldo made 101 Champions League appearances for Real and 23 for Juventus, with Wednesday his 54th across two spells at United.
Casillas had held the record since 2015 and made the last of his 177 Champions League appearances in April 2017 for Porto against Juventus.
The first 150 came for Real, including 53 alongside Ronaldo between 2009 and 2015 with the pair winning the 2014 title together – the long-awaited 10th in Real’s history, hailed as “La Decima”.
Messi and Xavi are the only other players to reach 150, with the former getting there on Tuesday night in Paris St Germain’s win over Manchester City and now one behind his third-placed former Barcelona colleague.
There are 40 players altogether in three figures, with Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski the closest of several who could join that group after he moved within two on Wednesday night.
Goals
Cristiano Ronaldo 🤝 the Champions League.#UCL pic.twitter.com/7HcywjyhdU
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) September 29, 2021
Ronaldo marked Wednesday’s big occasion with his 136th Champions League goal, excluding the qualifying stages, to extend his record in that category.
He leads his long-time rival Messi, who on Tuesday scored his first Paris St Germain goal to add to 120 in the Champions League for Barcelona, by 15. They are the only two players even to reach 100, with Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski a distant third on 77.
Ronaldo’s 17 goals in the 2013-14 campaign were an all-time record and he has been the competition’s top scorer on seven occasions, including 2014-15 when he shared the honour with Neymar and Messi.
He scored in a record 11 successive Champions League appearances for Real from June 2017’s final until April 2018 against the same opponents, Juventus – whom he would go on to join the following season.
The bulk of his goals, 105, came with Real, with 14 for Juve and 17 so far for United – having remarkably not scored until his 27th appearance in the competition. He shares the record of eight hat-tricks with Messi and is the only player to score in three different finals, in 2008, 2014 and 2017.
