Champions League Final Scoring Trend Favors First Goal Team

The Champions League finals have seen a curious trend since the dramatic 2014 final in Lisbon between Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid. It appears that the team scoring the first goal in the final has a higher chance of winning the coveted 'Orejona' trophy. This pattern became noticeable after Atlético's Diego Godín scored first, only for Real Madrid to come from behind and win in extra time. Since then, teams like Barcelona, Liverpool, PSG, and Chelsea have all benefited from scoring first in the final, securing their victory.

The finals that followed have reinforced this trend. In 2015, Barcelona defeated Juventus 3-1, with Ivan Rakitić scoring the opener. Real Madrid's dominance was evident in 2016 when Sergio Ramos scored first, leading to a penalty shootout victory over Atlético. The trend continued with Cristiano Ronaldo's opening goal leading to a 4-1 triumph over Juventus in 2017, and Karim Benzema starting Real Madrid's 3-1 win over Liverpool in 2018.

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Liverpool broke its final drought in 2019 with Mohamed Salah scoring early against Tottenham, resulting in a 2-0 victory. Bayern Munich followed this pattern in 2020, with Kingsley Coman's goal securing a 1-0 win over PSG. Chelsea's Kai Havertz and Real Madrid's Vinícius Júnior continued this streak in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Interestingly, since the 2018 final, only one team has managed to score in the Champions League final while losing. This occurred when Sadio Mané scored for Liverpool in their loss to Real Madrid. Since then, every final has seen at least one team fail to score, highlighting the growing importance of that crucial first goal.

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