El Gato
Villarato!
On pure stat - is scoring 1 goal per 2 knockout games really worth being called shocking? Scoring less than 1 in 4, sure, but 0.46 isn't too bad.
The whole thing becomes even more amusing when you break it down further and factor in the opposition these players usually score against and juxtapose that against what the likes of Inzaghi etc used to do.
Ibra for example:
4 goals in CL knockouts between 2003-10 - 3 of them when playing for Pep's Barcelona side, 2 vs Arsenal and 1 vs Stuttgart, the remaining vs Werder Bremen.
Then 5 goals between 2010-2019 - 1 vs Arsenal while playing for Meelan, then 1 vs Barca, 2 vs Leverkusen, 1 vs rather crap iterations of 2014 Chelsea and City each when playing for PSG.
Benzema all the more amusing given he's top 4 of all time in the CL -
2008 = 1 vs United
2011 = 2 vs Lyon
2012 = 1 vs CSKA, 2 vs APOEL
2013 = 1 vs Drogba Galatasaray, 1 vs Lewandowski's Dortmund
2014 = 2 vs Schalke, 1 vs Bayern
2015 = 1 vs Schalke
2016 = didn't score against any of Roma, Wolfsburg, City or Atleti
2017 = 1 goal vs Napoli, 1 assist vs Atleti, played in every game
2018 = 2 vs Bayern, 1 vs Liverpool, 2 of them after keeper blunders
2019 = 1 vs Ajax
Really shows you the reality of who really performs beyond their means when it matters and who is a level below.
Boniek was very good for his time. Big offensive talent, has a CL to his name and bronze at 1982 WC. He's no Lewa, a better modern day comparison would be someone like Torres.
Lato and Lubanski are another two names who have stats extraordinary for that era. The former led Poland to bronze at WC in 1974.
Lewa is without question the better player than any of them, but it's kinda how it is with Maradona-Messi. He'll never be rated as the GOAT unless he does something extraordinary in given cup competitions that separate him from the players back in the day. The 2016 Poland Euro campaign was the best tournament performance since 1982 and it's no accident it is not being held up as something good, because of the scabby way we got there. Lewa has the habit of being underwhelming in these kinds of fixtures, where he really can't afford to. He has to make his mark in 2020, but I fear his team will hold him back. Even though Poland is generally getting better at producing talent and making a cohesive unit out of players who play in different countries abroad. This generation of Szczesny, Piszczek, Glik, Krychowiak, Milik with Lewa upfront has reached its peak in 2016 and missed its window. It's CL success or he's always gonna be known as the Charles Barkley or Karl Malone of European football.
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