Barcelona‘s impressive 7-2 victory over Newcastle United in the Champions League round of 16 wasn’t the only highlight of the matchday.
Lamine Yamal and his teammates put on a goal-scoring spectacle in which the youngster played a key role, celebrating his goal with a dance in true Neymar style-but he also snatched an important record from Kylian Mbappé.
Mbappé loses major record to Yamal
In 2018, Kylian scored his 10th Champions League goal for PSG at the age of 18 years and 350 days in a match against Bayern Munich, and although he couldn’t prevent the 3-1 loss, it made him the competition’s all-time leading scorer among players under 19.
For eight years, the French forward could boast of being the youngest player to achieve this feat. Until Wednesday, March 18.
The young Barça star scored his team’s third goal of the match after converting a penalty kick in the 45+7th minute of the first half. Thus, at 18 years and 245 days old, Lamine snatched the record from Mbappé and established himself as the youngest player to reach this milestone in the competition.
Furthermore, he became the third player under 20 to reach this milestone, joining Mbappé and Erling Haaland in this select group.
Despite this achievement, ‘Kiki’ can still boast of having reached this milestone in fewer matches than Lamine, having needed only 15, while Yamal had to play 31 to reach this figure, according to Planet Football.
Now, having advanced to the quarterfinals and awaiting his matches against Atlético Madrid on April 8 and 14, Yamal will have another opportunity to continue making history and at least two games available to score his eleventh goal in European competition. And the big question is no longer whether he will definitively surpass Mbappé, but how many more records he can break before turning 19 on July 13, or before his 20th birthday in 2027.
Meanwhile, Barça is preparing to face Rayo Vallecano on Sunday, March 22, in LaLiga at the Spotify Camp Nou. Additionally, they will face Diego Simeone’s side at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano Stadium in LaLiga on April 4.
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