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The UEFA Champions League is the most prestigious club competition in Europe. The top teams from all the domestic top-flight leagues on the continent partake in the tournament. We have reached the quarter-final stage of this season and some of the best teams in Europe have already put one foot in the semi-finals.
The Champions League is a showcase of the biggest stars in football
Heroes are born and history is made when the stakes are high. It goes without saying that it takes a good amount of mental fortitude on top of technical ability to succeed in high pressure scenarios.
The Champions League knockout stages are the kind of platform where the best players in the game come up clutch and make a name for themselves.
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On that note, let's take a look at five players with the most Champions League knockout stage goals since the 2017-18 season.
#5 Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) - 12 goals
Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski is arguably the finest striker in the game right now. He has been scoring goals at a prolific rate for both club and country for years now and this season has been no different.
Lewandowski was the top scorer in the 2019-20 Champions League with 15 goals to his name. His goalscoring heroics propelled the Bavarians to European glory that season.
The Polish international scored a hat-trick in the second leg of Bayern's Round of 16 tie against RB Salzburg. Julian Nagelsmann's men have subsequently lost the first leg of their quarter-final tie to Villarreal by a 1-0 scoreline.
Lewandowski has scored 12 goals in the Champions League knockout stages since the 2017-18 season.
#4 Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain) - 12 goals
Lionel Messi has won four Champions League titles in his illustrious career. He is the second leading goalscorer in Europe's elite competition with 125 goals from 156 appearances.
Messi failed to convert a penalty in the first leg of Paris Saint-Germain's quarter-final tie this season, which turned out to be the difference between the two sides. He has scored 12 goals from 17 Champions League knockout stage games in the last five years.
#3 Sadio Mane (Liverpool) - 13 goals
Sadio Mane scored a goal in Liverpool's 3-1 win over Benfica in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie earlier this week. With that, his tally has risen to 13 knockout stage goals in the last five years.
Mane was a vital cog in the Liverpool side that made it to the Champions League final in the 2017-18 season. He would go on to win the title the following year with Liverpool.
Mane has made 23 Champions League knockout stage appearances in the last five years. This is a fair reflection of how well Liverpool have fared in the competition in the recent past under Jurgen Klopp.
#2 Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) - 13 goals
Cristiano Ronaldo was Manchester United's hero in the Champions League group stages this season. He scored several crucial goals for them, including late winners and produced multiple rescue acts to schlepp the Red Devils past the group stage.
However, Ronaldo couldn't do the same in the knockout stages and failed to score as Manchester United fell 2-1 on aggregate to Atletico Madrid in the Round of 16.
Ronaldo was the top scorer in the competition when Real Madrid won the Champions League in the 2017-18 season, scoring 15 goals. He has made 17 knockout stage appearances in the last five years and has scored 13 goals.
#1 Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) - 13 goals
Karim Benzema has been a man on a mission this season for Real Madrid. The Frenchman has played some of the best football of his career over the past couple of years. Benzema scored a 17-minute hat-trick to help Real Madrid beat PSG 3-2 on aggregate over the two legs of their Round of 16 tie last month.
In the first leg of the quarter-final against Chelsea on Wednesday night, he scored yet another hat-trick. Benzema has now scored 13 goals in just 15 Champions League knockout stage appearances in the last five years.
