PSG star Ousmane Dembele matches Cristiano Ronaldo feat after scoring in UCL win against Liverpool
PSG winger Ousmane Dembele matched Cristiano Ronaldo's record of scoring 21 times in the first three months of a year for a top-five league club. The Frenchman achieved the feat on Tuesday (March 11) in a 1-0 UEFA Champions League win at Liverpool.
Trailing 1-0 from the first leg at the Parc des Princes last week, the Parisians needed only 12 minutes to break the deadlock at Anfield, courtesy Dembele's strike. Nuno Mendes played the ball to Dembele in the centre, who passed it to Bradley Barcola.
His attempted cut-back to Dembele was intercepted by Ibrahima Konate, but the ball fell nicely to Dembele for a comfortable finish. It turned out to be the only goal of the night as extra time and eventually penalties beckoned, where Luis Enrique's men won 4-1 to eliminate the runaway Premier League leaders.
Dembele's strike equalled Ronaldo's record set in 2018 while he was at Real Madrid, with Los Blancos going on to win the competition that season. The Frenchman would hope for the same this season with the Parisians, who are yet to win European club football's blue-riband event.
They made the final in the COVID-19-affected 2019-20 season but lost to treble-winning Bayern Munich, missing out on a continental treble of their own in the process.
Dembele is in the midst of a superb season with Enrique's side, bagging 29 goals and six assists in 36 games across competitions. Meanwhile, Ronaldo is also having a strong campaign with Al-Nassr, with 27 goals and four assists in 32 outings across competitions.
A look at Cristiano Ronaldo's 2017-18 season
Cristiano Ronaldo is the most prolific goalscorers in the history of the beautiful game. The Al-Nassr captain has notched up a staggering 927 goals for club and country.
Nearly half of those goals - 450 - came during a hugely successful nine-season spell at Real Madrid. In his last season at the club in 2017-18, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner netted 44 times and provided eight assists in 44 outings across competitions.
The tally included 15 goals and three assists in 13 games in the UEFA Champions League as Zinedine Zidane's side became the first to three-peat in the competition. Ronaldo, though, didn't score in the 3-1 final win over Liverpool, which also turned out to be his final game for Los Blancos.
