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The UEFA Champions League is an ideal place to find the very best of world football, and the latter stages so often pits the best against the best.
On Tuesday, we will see two of the world’s elite strikers do battle, both looking to take their club into the final four as Kylian Mbappé’s Real Madrid take on Harry Kane’s Bayern Munich. In this week’s SVQ, we compare the two. Spoiler alert: They’re both pretty good.
The FA Cup quarter-finals took place at the weekend, with Manchester City, Chelsea, Leeds United and, surprisingly, Southampton getting through to the semis. Don’t worry Arsenal fans, we won’t be looking at the Saints’ shock win, but rather a player who took part in Man City’s 4-0 demolition of Liverpool, and no, not hat-trick hero Erling Haaland.
This week’s Ask Opta question looks across the pond to a familiar face impressing in Major League Soccer, while our quiz tests your Champions League knowledge.
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🔥 STAT - Mbappé vs Kane
There are some huge games on the horizon in the Champions League quarter-finals, with arguably none bigger than Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich.
An irresistible force against an immovable object?
Well, not quite. Madrid did lose at Mallorca on Saturday after all, but still, a potentially fun time to be had watching two behemoths battle.
There will be oodles of stars smattered about across the two legs, but where things could be decided might just be which phenomenal striker will have the most influence.
Kylian Mbappé missed Real Madrid’s last-16 wins over Manchester City with injury, but is back for this one. His 39 goals in 39 games in all competitions this season is at least 21 more than any other Madrid player.
The Frenchman has been in stunning form in the Champions League this season, averaging a goal every 56 minutes (13 goals in nine games). Only Erling Haaland (2019-20) has ever had a better minutes per-goal-ratio (55) having scored at least 10 times in a single edition.
The only player from Europe’s top five leagues to have more goals than Mbappé in all competitions this season is Harry Kane. His 51 goals in 45 games have him well ahead of anyone else.
To show how much the two players stand out, Haaland (36 goals in 48 games) is the only other player from Europe’s top five leagues to have also scored more than 25 goals.