Defiant Neymar refusing to leave PSG ‘until he wins Champions League’ – so will Ligue 1 champions finally break their duck? | Goal.com India
Neymar has proven to be one of the most reliable Champions League performers since joining Barcelona in the 2013-14 season.
The 25-year-old, who has been heavily linked to a move to PSG in recent weeks, has scored 21 goals and assisted 15 others — numbers that situate him among the best players in the past four years.
Only Cristiano ronaldo (55), Lionel Messi (35), robert Lewandowski (29) and Thomas Muller (23) have scored more Champions League goals than Neymar during that span.
in terms of assists, only ronaldo — who has set up 16 goals — has more.
if PSG do end up adding the Brazil international, they know what he can do. Neymar scored two goals in Barcelona’s stunning 6-1 victory over PSG on March 8 — one in the 88th minute and another on a penalty in the 91st — that allowed the Blaugrana to advance 6-5 on aggregate to the quarterfinals.
Neymar joined ronaldo and Messi as the top scorers in the Champions League in 2014-15, when all three players each scored 10 goals. He was difficult to stop that year, scoring in eight of Barca’s 12 games — including a goal in the 97th minute of a 3-1 victory against Juventus to put the game beyond doubt. The score effectively handed Barcelona the Champions League title.
He also netted a brace in the second leg of the quarterfinal against PSG and the second leg of the semifinal against Bayern Munich.
Despite all the scoring, the forward’s only hat trick in the Champions League dates back to 2013 — the first game in which he scored. Neymar tallied three goals in a 6-1 victory against Celtic in the group stage that year, scoring just before half-time and then adding two more.
in total, Barca have only lost twice in the 15 games where Neymar has scored, demonstrating his value to any club hoping to secure him for Europe’s top competition.
When Neymar won the only UEFA Champions League of his career at Barcelona – Who were his teammates and where are they now?
