Manchester City’s last-16 5-3 revival against Monaco saw the two sides set a new record high for goals scored in a Champions League first leg knockout tie.
In fact it was the most scored in a first leg tie in Europe’s top tier competition since Real Madrid hammered Austrian side Swarovski Tirol 9-1 back in 1990, prior to UEFA’s 1992 re-brand that saw the competition become the behemoth it is today.
Second legs have traditionally seen more goals scored. Although, the eight shared between City and Monaco still ranks second alongside four other second leg ties for highest tallies in a Champions League knockout game.
Manchester United 7-1 Roma (2007), Bayern Munich 7-1 Sporting Lisbon (2009), Chelsea 4-4 Liverpool (2009), Barcelona 7-1 Bayer Leverkusen (2012) are the other Champions League knockout ties with eight goals.
Only Lyon’s 7-2 win over Werder Bremen in 2005 has seen more goals in knockout game since 1992 than Tuesday night’s goal-fest at the Etihad.
Prior to the 1992 re-brand and the introduction of group stages in 1991 high-scoring first legs were far more commonplace. Between 1995 and 1990 there were 26 ties that saw at least eight goals in a game.
September 17, 1969 in particular was one for record books. Feyenoord beat KR Reykjavík 12-2, Leeds destroyed Lyn 10-0 and Crvena Zvezda saw off Linfield 8-0 all on the same day.
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