Top scorer candidates in the European Cups after the group stage
All three European Cups have now finished their group games for this season and here we go through the top scorers in each cup, and also tip the candidates to become the final "Golden Boot" winners.Champions League - familiar faces in the top
We first of course look at the biggest cup of them all - the UEFA Champions League. Bayern München is the team that has impressed the most in the group stage, as despite being drawn in a tough group together with Barcelona and Inter, they did not lose a single point. Other teams that did very well in the playoffs were Manchester City, but also Italian Napoli. Napoli won their group quite comfortably and the only point loss came in the last round when they lost against Liverpool away, but in practice they had already secured the group win before that match.When you look at the teams that didn't make it through to the next stage, we find teams like Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Juventus, who instead gets to continue in the Europa League. Since Sevilla also failed to advance, we only have one team that advanced from La Liga, which is of course Real Madrid. For sure a sign that La Liga, which has been very prominent in the UCL for many years, has lost some ground compared to other leagues. By comparison, all teams from both the Premier League and the Bundesliga advanced to next stage.
Among the top scorers we find two very well-known players in the top with 7 goals each - Kylian Mbappe and Mohamed Salah. Two goals behind this duo we find Manchester City's Erling Braut Haaland, and also Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski. However, as Barcelona did not qualify for the next round, Lewandowski is out of the game.
The round of 16 in the Champions League 2022/2023
This is how the round of 16 will be played in the Champions League. The most titillating matches are of course Liverpool against Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain against Bayern München, but all meetings are of course highly interesting. The biggest surprise in the group stage was Belgian Club Brügge, who now have to face Portuguese Benfica in the round of 16. Obviously tough for the Belgians, but not an impossible task.- RB Leipzig - Manchester City
- Club Brügge - Benfica
- Liverpool - Real Madrid
- Milan - Tottenham
- Eintracht Frankfurt - Napoli
- Borussia Dortmund - Chelsea
- Inter - Porto
- Paris Saint-Germain - Bayern München
So who will be the UCL top scorer in the end?
Both Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool have two really tough matches in the round of 16, which means that both Mbappe and Salah can be eliminated already there. With Liverpool's kind of poor performance this season and PSG's tradition of failing in the Champions League, it is actually very likely that they will be eliminated. This suggests that the world's hottest striker at the moment, Erling Braut Haaland will take home the title as the top scorer, partly based on previous theories, partly due to Manchester City having much easier matches against RB Leipzig (who also do concede quite a lot of goals). Add to this the fact that Haaland does not play in the World Cup in Qatar, and thus gets a long holiday and can come back to league and European games in excellent physical shape.Europa League - wide open for the top scorer title
In the second biggest tournament, the Europa League, no team has proven overwhelmingly superior. The best performances have come from Arsenal and Spanish teams Real Betis and Real Sociedad, all three of whom won their groups quite easily. Turkish Fenerbahce and German Freiburg also made it through the playoffs undefeated.In the next phase of the Europa League, the third-placed teams from each group in the Champions League steps into the tournament, playing the second-placed teams in each group in the Europa League, and the winners of these meetings then advance to the round of 16 against the group winners in the Europa League.
In the top scorer list, we find Santiago Giménez in Feyenoord and Vitor Oliveira in Braga in the top with 4 goals each, and then 16 players who scored three goals. Braga are eliminated but Feyenoord are still in the tournament, which means that Santiago Giménez is the player that is currently best situated.
Europa League Knockout Phase
This is the draw for the knockout phase where teams such as Barcelona, Ajax and Juventus enter as the top three from their Champions League group stage.- Barcelona - Manchester United
- Juventus - Nantes
- Sporting - Midtjylland
- Shakhtar Donetsk - Rennes
- Ajax - Union Berlin
- Bayern Leverkusen - Monaco
- Sevilla - PSV Eindhoven
- Salzburg - Roma
Manchester United's Marcus Rashford - one of the candidates
Who can become the top scorer in the Europa League?
Because it is so even at the top of the top scorers right now, it is almost impossible to say who will become the top scorer. In addition, the new team coming in from the Champions League does so already is in the knockout phase, which means that if a player such as Dusan Vlahovic in Juventus scores three goals in the matches against Nantes, he is suddenly one of the candidates, even though Juventus have not played in the group stage.Two players to keep an extra eye on are PSV Eindhoven's Cody Gakpo and Manchester United's Marcus Rashford. Both have currently scored three goals each and both teams are playing in the knockout phase, which means they get two extra games to score. They then have the rest of the playoffs ahead of them, if they manage to advance of course.
Europa Conference League - a Ukrainian at the top
In the newest of all European Cups, the UEFA Europa Conference League, it is West Ham who have impressed the most as they went through the group stage without losing a single point. Second best in terms of points yield is the Swedish team Djurgården, with 5 wins and one draw. Dutch AZ Alkmaar also did well with 5 wins and only one loss.The structure for the continuation is the same as for the Europa League. Next comes a knockout phase where the group runners-up are pitted against those who came third in their group in the Europa League.
The current top scorer leader is the Ukrainian Artem Dovbyk who plays in SK Dnipro-1, scoring 5 goals so far. Next, we find a group of seven players who have each scored 4 goals. The most known name among these players is Fiorentina's Serbian Luka Jovic.
Knockout phase in the Europa Conference League
Here below you will find the draw for the next phase in the Europa Conference League. The most well-known team from Europa League entering in this phase are Lazio.- Qarabag - Gent
- Trabzonspor - Basel
- Lazio - CFR Cluj
- Bodø/Glimt - Lech Poznan
- Braga - Fiorentina
- AEK Larnaca - SK Dnipro-1
- Sheriff Tiraspol - Partizan Belgrade
- Ludogorets - Anderlecht
Luka Jovic
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