Haaland and Mbappe vs. Lewandowski: The one aspect where Barcelona ace leads

BARCELONA, SPAIN - OCTOBER 01: Robert Lewandowski of FC Barcelona celebrates scoring his team's first goal during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD2 match between FC Barcelona and BSC Young Boys at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys on October 01, 2024 in Barcelona, Spain.

Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images

Despite being 36 years old, Robert Lewandowski is once again proving himself to be one of the best strikers in Europe. The Pole has already scored seven goals in eight La Liga matches for Barcelona, and is currently leading the Pichichi race.

Furthermore, he also has scored two goals in his two UEFA Champions League appearances. Although he is the oldest striker playing in the premier European competition, he still stands above two other most notable talents on the continent in one particular aspect.

As Mundo Deportivo has noted, the Polish veteran is the player to have scored the most goals in the UEFA Champions League since the 2019-20 season, the year that Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland started playing in the competition.

Since that season, the Barcelona ace has scored 43 goals in 42 games. The current Manchester City forward, Haaland, follows him closely as he has scored 42 goals in 41 games, while the Real Madrid star stands third with his 35 goals in 49 games.

The fourth position in this ranking is taken by the former Merengue forward Karim Benzema, who had 30 goals in 40 games, while Mohammad Salah stands fifth with 26 goals in 40 games.

In two of these last five seasons, 2019-20 and 2021-22, Robert Lewandowski scored more goals than both Haaland and Mbappe.

In 2020-21, Haaland was the top scorer and Lewandowski was behind even Mbappe. Haaland once again emerged as the top scorer among the three in 2022-23, while Mbappe was the top scorer only in the last season.

With two matches played in the Champions League up to now, these three forwards will once again engage in this battle. Lewandowski currently leads in this race as he has two goals, while the other two have only one goal to their names. But this race will get more and more exciting as the competition progresses.