The Champions League returns this week for its round of 16 and, if the last stage of the competition was anything to go by, we are in for a lot of excitement. There were 308 goals scored in the group stage and expect them to keep coming.
With that in mind, we have decided to take a look at the outright favourites to end this installment of the Champions League as the top scorer.
Robert Lewandowski – 1/9
It’s none other than Robert Lewandowski who heads the market to finish this Champions League campaign as the top scorer. As short as 1/9, the Bayern Munich man has already netted 10, registering a shots-on-target rate of 77%. This week he became just the second ever player in the Bundesliga, after Gerd Muller, to score 23 goals in the first 22 matches of the season. That 23rd league goal was also his 40th for club and country this season – a feat that no other player has reached in 2019/20.
Erling Braut Haaland – 15/1
With eight goals and one assist to boot, Erling Braut Haaland is second-favourite in the betting to be at the top of the Champions League goal scorer chart come the end of May. Another one who plies his trade in the Bundesliga, the Borussia Dortmund striker was recently awarded the league’s January player of the month. This comes despite the fact that he played less than an hour of football during those 31 days. He did, however, manage to squeeze five goals into those 59 minutes, averaging one every 11.8 minutes. It’s not hard to see why he’s tipped to give Lewandowski a run for his money in the Champions League,
Lionel Messi – 22/1
Last season saw Lionel Messi finish as the outright UEFA Champions League top scorer for the first time since 2011/12. He ended the campaign four goals ahead of this year’s favourite, Lewandowski. Despite Spurs and Liverpool being the last two teams standing last year, neither side could boast a player who came within seven goals of Messi ahead of the final. The Argentine maestro racked up a tally of 12 in the competition to end as top scorer for the fifth time.
Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe, Raheem Sterling – 25/1
All fancied at 25/1 to be top-scorer, Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and Raheem Sterling round off the list of favourites. Kane currently leads the way with one more goal than Mbappe and Sterling’s five, but the England man is still out of action following an operation to repair a torn hamstring. Meanwhile, PSG’s Mbappe has bagged an impressive 23 goals in 27 games for the Parisian outfit this season. Despite six more players currently on five goals in the competition, it’s Sterling who is joint-fancied at 25/1 and for good reason. This could be his side’s last shot at the Champions League for a couple of years following a recently implemented ban, so Manchester City have all the more reason to go all out in a bid to lift the trophy in Istanbul. He hasn’t scored since getting a brace against Wolves in December, but did secure a Champions League hat-trick earlier in the campaign and is poised grab more European goals before the season is out.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.