THE BLOG BY CPD FOOTBALL | The World of Indian football and beyond by Chris Punnakkattu Daniel

Bundesliga remains highest-scoring top league in Europe

Bundesliga

The Bundesliga remains the highest-scoring European top league. With an average of 3.2 goals per match, the Bundesliga is ahead of the Premier League (2.8), Serie A (2.7), La Liga and Ligue 1 (both 2.6) after the 2018-19 season. At the same time, a total of 973 goals is the highest in 32 years and a significant increase on the last season (2.8).

With the exception of the 2016-17 season, the Bundesliga has now been the European top flight with the most goals per match for the last 29 years. In the previous season, this was also due to the fact that only 17 of the 306 matches ended goalless – which equates to just 5.6 percent, the lowest value among the five top European leagues.

The gripping 2018-19 Bundesliga season has celebrated some special moments in this context – many personal success stories will be remembered. To mention just a few examples: top scorer Robert Lewandowski of FC Bayern München became the first foreign player to score more than 200 Bundesliga goals – so far only Gerd Müller, Klaus Fischer, Jupp Heynckes and the recently deceased Manfred Burgsmüller have reached this milestone. SV Werder Bremen’s Claudio Pizarro needs just three more goals to celebrate his 200th Bundesliga goal. However, the Peruvian made headlines last season when he replaced Mirko Votava as the oldest Bundesliga scorer of all time – and even extended his own record on Matchday 34 to 40 years and 227 days.

Borussia Dortmund’s Paco Alcácer set a record for the most goals by a substitute (12) in a season in the first half of his first season in German professional football – with an average of just 67 minutes per goal, he is currently the most effective striker in Bundesliga history with more than 25 appearances. At 20 years and 300 days, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Luka Jovic became the youngest Bundesliga player to score five goals in one match – succeeding Klaus Scheer, who netted five times for FC Schalke 04 against 1. FC Köln on 1 September 1971 at the age of 20 years and 332 days. Furthermore, Andrej Kramaric of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, Nils Petersen of Sport-Club Freiburg and Alfred Finnbogason of FC Augsburg became the all-time record Bundesliga goal scorers for their respective clubs.

(DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga)