Few clubs in the world can claim to have a history as rich and as successfully as that of FC Barcelona. Beyond just the success they managed to achieve in top competitions, La Blaugrana have always stood proud of the quality of football that they played. Fortunately for Barcelona, that tradition remains alive even today.
However, playing against such high-level opposition and being expected to play a fluid and beautiful brand of football hardly comes easy. To do that, the Catalan giants have often needed the help of world-class players to make it possible to play the kind of football that they have played in the past.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of world-class talents at the club even today. Among those players, perhaps the most decorated and most experienced at the highest level that football has to offer would be none other than 36-year-old Polish ace Robert Lewandowski.
While his pedigree speaks for itself, his statistics also help his case of being regarding as one of the most prolific strikers of his generation. So far in his career, the Pole has scored 99 goals in the UEFA Champions League, and that too in just 124 appearances.
Moreover, as highlighted by Mundo Deportivo, Lewandowski is now just one goal away from joining the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the only players to ever score a century of goals in Europe’s premiere cup competition. Both the Argentine (129) and the Portuguese icon (140) have so far been the only players to reach that milestone in their career.
To join such elite company would truly be a testament to Lewandowski’s surreal abilities as a goalscorer. After all, the two players in question are claimed by many as being among the greatest players to ever grace the sport itself. For the Barcelona striker to join their ranks in terms of Champions League goals, however, he needs just one more goal.
After scoring a brace against Red Star Belgrade last time out, Lewandowski was left just one goal short of reaching that incredible milestone. Against French side Brest, who happen to be Barça’s next opponents in the Champions League, the former Bayern Munich striker will look to make it happen.
Having taken part in the competition across three different teams so far in his career, Lewandowski has more or less maintained his consistency. With Borussia Dortmund, he scored 17 goals in 28 UCL appearances. Then with Bayern Munich, he found the back of the net on 69 occasions across 78 matches, and now most recently with Barcelona, Lewandowski has 13 goals in 18 Champions League outings.