Ten top facts from FC Barcelona's Champions League group stage
The six games in Group C saw some impressive performances from the Catalans, and here we pick out some of the standout stats
- With five wins and one draw, Barça finished well clear the top of Champions League Group C. Looking back at the last ten years, the tally of 15 points was the same in the 2014/15 group stage when the team went on to win the trophy, and is just one point short of the best total of sixteen in 2011/12.
- At the Camp Nou, Barça won all three games, scoring a massive 15 goals and conceding not one! Since Luis Enrique has been in charge, Barça have won all fourteen Champions league games at home.
- Barça also set their best group stage goal difference of the last ten years. The 4-0 defeat of Borussia Mönchengladbach meant they ended with a 20-4 overall record. That equals Barça’s record in 2011/12.
- Leo Messi played a massive role in that achievement even despite missing one game through injury. He scored ten goals, including two hat-tricks against Celtic and Manchester City at the Camp Nou. He also scored two in Glasgow, one in Manchester and another last night at home to Gladbach.
- Pending the outcome of Wednesday night’s matches, that makes the Argentinian the top goalscorer. The closest challengers are from Edinson Cavani (PSG) with four and Robert Levandowski (Bayern Munich) with five.
- Another big star of Barça’s games was Neymar Jr, who provided assists for seven of the 20 goals. He also got a couple of goals himself.
- Luis Enrique used no fewer than 23 players in the group stage. Goalkeeper Jordi Masip was the only first team member not to get a chance, while there were also run-outs for Marlon Santos and Marc Cardona from the B team, The Brazilian was on for 18 minutes at Celtic Park and the Catalan played the last quarter of an hour against Gladbach.
- Because of injuries, suspensions or coaching decisions, no player appeared in more than five group stage matches. Mascherano, Messi, Ter Stegen and Luis Suárez got the most action with 450 minutes each.
- The Manchester City game at the Camp Nou attracted a season-high attendance of 96,290, a figure only surpassed in recent seasons by Clásicos. The Borussia Mönchengladbach game was seen by a crowd of 73,920 and against Celtic there were 67,157 people inside the Camp Nou.
- The Gladbach win was victory 300 for Barça in European competitions. 168 of those were in the European Cup/Champions League, 50 in the Cup Winners’ Cup, 36 in the Fairs Cup, 40 in the UEFA Cup and six in the European Super Cup. The list does not include a further four wins in the old Latin Cup.