Thomas Müller reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League with FC Bayern on Wednesday. Once again. The native of Munich is a permanent guest in the knockout games of the premier class.
For Müller, who was in the starting lineup of the German record champions against Paris Saint-Germain, it was the 65th knockout game in the Champions League. This puts the 2014 world champion in third place among the players with the most appearances in the round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals.
Only Lionel Messi (77) and Cristiano Ronaldo (85) have more knockout games under their belt. While CR7 won the title four times with Real Madrid and once with Manchester United, Messi has four Champions League titles with Barça and Thomas Müller has two with Bayern.
A similar picture emerges in the Champions League all-time top scorers list. Cristiano Ronaldo also leads the ranking here with 140 goals, while Leo Messi follows in second place with 129 goals.
The other places are followed by Robert Lewandowski (91), Karim Benzema (88), Raul Gonzalez Blanco (71) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (56). Thomas Müller is in seventh place with 53 goals and has scored more goals than legends like Thierry Henry (50), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (48), Pippo Inzaghi (46) and Didier Drogba (44).
With 140 appearances in the Champions League, however, Thomas Müller is in eighth place in the list of record players. Cristiano Ronaldo (183) leads here as well, but not in front of Lionel Messi (163), but Iker Casillas (177). The other places follow: Xavi Hernandez (151), Karim Benzema (147), Ryan Giggs (145) and Raul (142).
