Friday 20/March/2026 – 11:09 AM
It witnessed the round of 16 matches of the tournament UEFA Champions League For the 2025-2026 season, he achieved great scoring excitement by scoring 68 goals in 8 matches, which resulted in the qualification of 8 major clubs to the quarter-finals: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, and Sporting Lisbon.
According to the statistics of the Transfermarkt website, reaching the quarter-finals has become a repeated achievement for a number of world football legends since the tournament was restructured with its new format in the 1992/1993 season, and German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer topped the list of players who appeared most in this round throughout the history of the competition.
List of players who participated most in the Champions League quarter-finals
The ranking of the players who reached the most quarter-finals in the history of the Champions League is as follows:
Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich): 16 times (twice with Schalke and 14 times with Bayern Munich).
David Alaba (Real Madrid): 15 times (he arrived this season with the Royal Club despite his injury).
Lionel Messi: 14 times.
Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich): 14 times.
Ryan Giggs (Manchester United): 13 times.
Andres Iniesta (Barcelona): 13 times.
Gerard Pique (Barcelona): 13 times.
Lewandowski competes with Ronaldo and is the only Englishman to appear
The historic list witnessed Polish striker Robert Lewandowski reaching the quarter-finals for the 12th time in his career, after qualifying with Barcelona this season, making him equal to the tournament’s all-time top scorer, Cristiano Ronaldo, who also has 12 appearances in this round.
As for English players, the presence of the Three Lions in the top 15 list was limited to former Manchester United duo Paul Scholes and Wes Brown, as the most successful English players in reaching this advanced stage of the continental championship.
