28-year-old Barcelona star has already equaled Lionel Messi’s best UCL season numbers | OneFootball

FC Barcelona got a whopping 4-0 win over Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie, which means the Blaugranes have all but secured a place in the semi-finals of the competition.

As has been the case for most part of their UCL campaign this season, the Brazilian forward Raphinha was once again pivotal for his side. He scored the opening goal of the game, with which he took his goal tally in the competition to 12 goals. Thus, he got even closer to reaching Lionel Messi’s record of 14 goals in a single Champions League campaign for Barcelona.

However, as Mundo Deportivo has noted, the Blaugrana star has already reached another record of the Argentine legend. In addition to his 1 goal in this game, Raphinha had also provided 2 assists, which means he now has 19 total goal contributions in the UCL this season, the same as Messi in 2011-12, his best UCL season.

La Pulga scored 14 goals and provided 5 assists in the premier European competition before Barcelona were eliminated by Chelsea in the semi-finals.

This season, Raphinha has provided 7 assists in addition to his 12 goals, which brings his tally to 19 goals. The Brazilian star can still play four more games in this edition of the competition, and thus can hope to also beat the only two players who remain ahead of him in UCL goal contributions in a single season.

One of these players is his current Barcelona teammate Robert Lewandowski, who made 21 goal contributions in 2019-20 with Bayern Munich, scoring 15 goals and creating another 6.

The other player is Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 17 goals and provided 5 assists in the 2013-14 season to take his UCL goal contributions to 22 as Real Madrid won the competition that year.

Raphinha seems on course to reach these numbers, and might be able to do so in a week’s time, as Barcelona and Dortmund once again face off in the second leg of the quarter-final tie.