Just 124 matches after the start of the competition proper in Milan and Bern, the Champions League reaches its final match on Saturday at Wembley Stadium. This year, 374 goals were scored and only 53 clean sheets were kept. The 2023-24 season was rich in drama, twists and turns and, surely best of all, the statistics. Even though only Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund remain, there are still individual accolades to claim, history to write and curiosities to discover.
Displaying information
- Date: Saturday June 1st | Time: 3 p.m. ET
- Location: Wembley Stadium — London, England
- TV: CBS | Direct: Paramount+
- Odds: Borussia Dortmund +420; Draw +330; Real Madrid -165
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Broadcast schedule for the Champions League final
All US and Eastern times
- Morning Footy, 11:00 a.m. (CBS Sports Golazo Network)
- We Need to Talk, 12:30 p.m. (CBS, Paramount+)
- UEFA Champions League today, 1 p.m. (CBS Sports Golazo Network, Paramount+)
- UEFA Champions League preview today, 1:30 p.m. (CBS, Paramount+)
- CBS Sports Golazo Game Day, 1:30 p.m. (CBS Sports Golazo Network)
- Borussia Dortmund vs. Real Madrid, 3 p.m. (CBS, Paramount+)
- UEFA Champions League post-match today, 5:30 p.m. (CBS Sports Network, Paramount+)
- Score, 5:30 p.m. (CBS Sports Golazo Network)
- The Champions Club, 6:30 p.m. (CBS Sports Golazo Network)
Here’s a look at the individual leaders of the competition:
golden boot
On a day that will no doubt be named the Cristiano Ronaldo Prize, this one appears to be done and dusted before the competition itself has even finished. Two players occupy the top spot, Harry Kane of Bayern Munich and Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint-Germain, with eight goals to their name. You may recall that the semi-finals didn’t go as planned for either superstar and that even a player as fast as Mbappe can’t advance his move to Madrid that far. Contrary to FIFA’s curious insistence that the player with the most assists should win the World Cup top scorer award, UEFA does not enforce tiebreakers in the race for goalscorers of the Champions League. It will just have to be half a trophy for Kane.
With their closest rivals, Antoine Griezmann and Erling Haaland, having reached the Champions League clubhouse with a total of six to their name, it looks like it will be a prize shared by Kane and Mbappe. Their eight goals will be the first time the Golden Boot has been won by a player who has not reached double figures since 2009-10, when Lionel Messi reached the eight mark, in the then less than illustrious era of Jose. Mourinho’s suffering.
Here again, it’s the Champions League and there are honors to be distributed. Using words like “done and dusted” tends to have a remarkably restorative impact on Real Madrid. Three of their players – Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and semi-final hero Joselu – have five goals to their name so far. Three of the four players who scored hat tricks in the European Cup final did so in Madrid colors. I say it like that.
|
1. |
Harry Kane |
Bayern Munich |
8 |
36 |
6.78 |
1065 |
|
1. |
Kylian Mbappé |
Paris Saint Germain |
8 |
51 |
8.16 |
1080 |
|
3. |
Antoine Griezmann |
Atletico Madrid |
6 |
22 |
4.8 |
822 |
|
3. |
Erling Haaland |
Manchester City |
6 |
43 |
6.99 |
778 |
And Dortmund? Niklas Fullkrug is at three. Probably not then…
Assist the leader
Now we have a fight on our hands! The man with his numbers on the price at the moment rather symbolizes the well-timed heating of Borussia Dortmund in the spring. Marcel Sabitzer completed 213 passes, created 13 chances and provided 1.32 expected assists (xA) to the cause. This resulted in five assists, more than anyone else in the competition so far. Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi must ask themselves what they need to do to get such finishers at the end of the opportunities they create.
Everything remains to be played at Wembley, but Vinicius and Bellingham are only an assist away from Sabitzer equalizing. The former in particular suffered a creative crisis in the new year, rivaling David Bowie in Berlin. Eleven of the 19 chances he created came in high-stakes knockout moments, as did 1.61 of his 2.58 xA. Whether he tops the charts in goalscorers or assists, who knows, but keep this form going through Wembley and into the Copa America and you might just be reading about the next Ballon d’Or winner.
Don’t miss CBS Sports Golazo Network’s Morning Footy, now in podcast form! Our team brings you all the news, views, highlights and laughs you need to follow the Beautiful Game around the world, Monday to Friday, all year round.
Golden Glove
The football community is now well-informed enough to know that clean sheets are far from the best measure of a goalkeeper’s qualities. But look, what else would you like me to use? Checked in ? This just favors busy players on bad teams. Goals prevented? Too cheesy. Possession value? What did I just say? It might not be perfect, it might reward the defense as a whole rather than the goalkeepers individually, but clean sheets will do.
Fortunately, on this occasion it also highlights a player who is clearly the best goalkeeper in the 2023-24 Champions League. Gregor Kobel has this in the bag anyway with six clean sheets under his belt, although as Chuck Booth notes, having the best goalie in the tournament is somewhat of a double-edged sword. All credit goes to Alex Remiro, David Raya, Manuel Neuer and Yann Sommer, but it’s the Borussia Dortmund man who takes home this award. It would do this by many other statistical measures you might like to name.
TruMedia
Kobel’s 42 saves are four more than anyone else in the competition, his 7.09 goals preventing almost double the second best mark set by Anatoliy Trubin. Sommer beat his compatriot Kobel in terms of save percentage and goals conceded per 90 minutes, but look, Inter went through a pretty straightforward group before going to Atletico Madrid. Half of Dortmund’s 12 games were against soft power vehicles from the oil state masquerading as soccer clubs. They beat them both to first place in a group that also contained AC Milan… then they knocked out PSV Eindhoven and Atletico Madrid before running into one of those football problems again. sovereign wealth. There could hardly be a tougher test for a team and especially a goalkeeper. Kobel succeeded.
Other stats we like
- The problem with defensive stats is that one of the best jobs done without possession is preventing any meaningful action from happening. How often do the opposition not throw a long ball into the channel because they know that Virgil van Dijk or William Saliba will intimidate their centre-forward? Yet there is a world to celebrate the active side of defense: hitting your opponent firmly but fairly, kicking the ball, reading the pass before it arrives. Enter Mats Hummels, who leads the Champions League in tackles, interceptions and clearances with the second most ball recoveries. Aaah, you say, but that’s just because he logged the most minutes in the tournament. However, adjust your numbers to 90 and the Borussia Dortmund center back still leads the way in tackles, ranks third in interceptions and sixth in clearances. His season was a masterclass in a busy defense.
- One such curious metric is Shot Targets Added (SGA). By evaluating xG values before and after shooting, it doesn’t necessarily tell you much more meaningfully over a long period of time than xG itself. The best strikers aren’t necessarily those who hit the corners every time – Heung-min Son might say otherwise – but those who continue to get into shooting position. Still within the relatively brief life cycle of a Champions League campaign, SGA pursues a different objective, highlighting the men whose Yeah the matches had an outsized impact on the tournament. Oh Lautaro Martinez (34 shots, two goals, 5.13 xG, -1.83 ASG), if only you had kept your Serie A form in the big leagues, there could have been another Champions League final in perspective. Fabian Ruiz, we really need to train your head.
- Are we seeing a new approach to post-pressing at the top of the European game? Even Borussia Dortmund are no longer fans of Jurgen Klopp’s heavy metal, returning to the promised land of Wembley thanks to tight defensive lines and immaculate off-the-ball form. Manchester City’s 92.4% success rate is the highest in five years of Champions League football. Real Madrid’s 90.1% came in third while PSG, Bayern Munich and Feyenoord were among those significantly more accurate than in previous years. For the entire competition, the success rate was 83.6%, compared to 82.1% pre-COVID-19 2020. Similarly, this year, teams won the ball back in the middle third at 22.6 occasions per match. Five years ago it was 24.3.
- Part of that may be the amount of time everyone has spent. Twenty players have played more than 150 matches in the history of UEFA club competitions. Four of them – Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric, Thomas Muller and Ivan Rakitic – joined this club this season. With all these Champions League matches, Müller now ranks level with the timeless Xavi Hernández with 151 Champions League matches, just one ahead of compatriot Toni Kroos, who will retire from club football after Saturday’s final . For now, this at least means that of the 15 players who have played the most Champions League matches, 10 are still active. Eight of the top 15 were managed by Carlo Ancelotti. Those days of football are over on!