5 players who have scored the most goals in the Champions League final
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On Saturday, Real Madrid will be aiming to win their 14th European crown but Liverpool will have a big say in that with the Reds chasing their seventh Champions League triumph.
Real Madrid has a unique bond to the Champions League and its previous incarnation, the European Champions Cup. This will be their eighth Champions League final since 1998 and their 25th final of the competition including the 17 times they contested the trophy when it was still the European Cup.
So it’s hardly surprising that Real Madrid players feature strongly in the ranking of players who have found the back of the net in the final. Here are five players who have scored the most goals in the Champions League/ European Cup Final:
5. Eusébio (Benfica) – Three goals
The 1965 Ballon d’Or winner enjoyed a stellar career with Benfica and the Portuguese national team. At the club level with Benfica, Eusebio won 11 league titles, five Portuguese Cups, and the 1962 European Cup.
He scored twice in the 1962 European Cup final against Real Madrid which was just his first full season in senior football. That year he came second in the 1962 Ballon d’Or votings losing to Josef Masopust of Dukla Prague. He scored another goal in the finals as Benfica were European Cup runners-up in 1963, 1965, and 1968.
4. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) – Three goals
Gareth Bale may be booed whenever he steps onto the Santiago Bernabeu pitch by the Madrid faithful but his goal-scoring prowess in the finals is the reason Real Madrid has added two more Champions League to their trophy cabinet.
Bale scored his first finals goal in the first season itself after making a world-record move from Tottenham in the 2013-14 Champions League Final. Real Madrid faced their city rivals Athletico in the final with the game going to extra time when Bale popped up with the first of the three goals as Real Madrid achieved La Decima after a long wait.
Gareth Bale beat Loris Karius twice, including an unforgettable overhead kick as Madrid ran out 3-1 winners against Liverpool in the 2017-18 CL Final and Bale took his tally to three goals in the final stage.
3. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United/ Real Madrid) – Four goals
In the Champions League era, the player to have scored the most goals in the final is Cristiano Ronaldo who is on four goals with two different clubs. He fired Manchester United ahead just before the half-hour in his first appearance in a final, against Chelsea in May 2008. That game ended 1-1 and went to extra-time then penalties and although Cristiano missed his, United prevailed 6-5 to lift the trophy.
Carlo Ancelotti’s Madrid made it to the 2014 final in Lisbon and finally secured La Décima with Cristiano slotting in from the spot in the final minute of extra-time. Cristiano doubled his tally with a brace in the 2017 final against Juventus. He didn’t find the net in the following year’s final against Liverpool and since then his teams have never gone past the quarter-final stage whether it be Juventus or Manchester United.
2. Ferenc Puskas (Real Madrid) – Seven goals
Two players top the list of all-time goal scorers in European Cup/Champions League finals, both Real Madrid legends i.e Alfredo Di Stéfano and Ferenc Puskás. They both scored seven goals in six final appearances between 1956 and 1962 and share the all-time record.
Puskás, in his second season at the club, ended on four goals in the 1960 final and became the first player to score a hat trick in a European Cup final, 13 minutes before Di Stéfano completed his.
Remarkably, Puskás repeated the feat when Madrid met Benfica in the final two years later with a hat trick in under 21 minutes in Amsterdam, but not enough to prevent the Portuguese side from winning the game 5-3 and lifting the trophy.
1. Alfredo Di Stéfano (Real Madrid) – Seven goals
Di Stéfano was the first Real Madrid player to score in a European Cup final, pulling one back for José Villalonga’s side against Stade de Reims in the inaugural final in Paris.
Di Stéfano put Los Blancos ahead from the spot in the following year’s final against Fiorentina, paving the way for a 2-0 victory. He pulled the team back level in the 1958 final in Brussels and hit the winner 12 months later, as Madrid beat Reims for a second time.
Di Stéfano surpassed himself in the 1960 final in Glasgow when Madrid thrashed Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 in front of a crowd of almost 128,000. He was on target twice in the first half and completed his hat trick with just under 20 minutes to go. Alfredo Di Stefano scored in every final appearance as Real Madrid won five consecutive European Cups between 1955 and 1960.
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Sujeeth Shetty
(766 Articles Published)