100 not out: Lewandowski moves closer to Messi and Ronaldo with century of European goals

Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski moved closer to another Blaugrana legend Lionel Messi on the all-time scorers chart of the UEFA Champions League after scoring against Antwerp. 

The Polish striker scored Barcelona’s second goal against Antwerp during the Blaugrana’s opening match of the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League season to reach 92 goals in the competition, spanning his time with the Catalan giants, as well as Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. 

The 35-year-old forward finished off a brilliant move, meeting Joao Felix’s far post cross to register his first goal of the new UCL season. 

Lewandowski, who joined Barcelona from Bayern Munich at the start of last season, has now scored a total of 100 European goals, including 92 in the UCL and eight in the UEFA Europa League.

The new milestone brings Lewandoski closer to the UEFA Champions League’s top two scorers of all time, as he now sits 37 goals behind Messi, and 49 behind top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo. 

With the two players having likely retired from European competition with their moves to the MLS and Saudi Pro League respectively, Lewandowski will be confident of reaching at least one of the two players before he also hangs up his boots in Europe. 

The former Bayern Munich forward has already won the UEFA Champions League with the Bavarians and reached the final with Borussia Dortmund, and will be hoping to make more UCL memories with his present side Barcelona this season. 

After Lewandowski, the next highest goalscorer currently active in the UCL is Bayern Munich’s Thomas Muller, who is some 39 goals behind him with 53 strikes.