2014: Top 5 scoring teams in Europe during the last 12 months

As they say attack is the best form of defense, there are several teams around Europe which have epitomized this art to perfection in the last 12 months. While most of those teams are sitting at top of their League at the end of this year, there is a minority of them which have lost their cutting edge in the last 6 months of this year.Here are 5 teams that have scored the most number of goals in their respective leagues during the past 6 months:

#5 Liverpool (83)

When they say that football is a game of two halves, no other team more than Liverpool will justify for the truthfulness of this statement. Enjoying a streamlined season at the start of this year where they were blowing teams away for fun, Liverpool managed more goals than Real Madrid in the opening 6 months of this season.

They managed a total of 55 goals in the last 19 matches of Barclays Premier League last season.

Being one of the teams that scored a century of goals last season, Liverpool were one of the five sides that achieved a 100 goal mark last season. However, coming back to this season, they’re the only side from that centurion tag to be out of the top 4 this season.

Fast forward 6 months like the journey of a Titanic which was brilliant at the start and gloomy at the end, everything is gloomy for the Reds this season.

The goals that became a part of their Match day hospitality last season have been replaced by some stagnant strike-force this season. And while the stories of Sturridge and Suarez seems a distant memory, the current strike force of Liverpool has piled more misery on their own fans than the opposition.

While they scored 55 goals in the first half of this season, the Reds have managed just 26 goals in 19 matches so far which indicates how backward they have gone this season. However, courtesy to their 4-1 thumping of Swansea, Liverpool have scored 83 goals this season.

#4 Manchester City (89)

Even though they are playing the chasing game in Premier League this season like the last one, Manchester City have taken full advantage of having Sergio Aguero in their ranks.

Even though Aguero is injured from the last 2 weeks, the Argentine has piled enough misery on other teams to be still on top of the goal-scoring charts. And benefitting directly from his form are Manchester United who are chasing Chelsea exactly the same way they did against Liverpool last season.

Even though they were 3rd in the Premier League at start of March, Manchester City did really well to get their 2nd league title in a matter of 3 years. While Joe Hart wasn’t at the best of his form last season as talks of him being replaced were surfacing, the strike-force of Manchester City did well to camouflage the errors of their team-mate.

Even though Aguero has played just 23 matches in the whole of last year, the Argentine is responsible for 20% of goals that Manchester City managed in 2014. So the void was left by Aguero in 2014 and Yaya Toure stepped up to the task and took it by its neck.

As Manchester City has scored 89 goals in 2014, the Ivorian contributed in 15 of them directly with numerous assists to his name as well..

#3 Barcelona (92)

Even though 2014 was a barren spell for Barcelona in terms of trophies, their strikers managed enough goals to boost their team up the goal scoring charts. Defeated in the Semi-final of 2013-14 Champions League before losing the league title on the last day of the season, 2014 wouldn’t be remembered in the Barcelona folklore for long.

However, in terms of goals scored, this year was no different from those before as the stats mentioned below suggests. Taking full advantage of the Sanchez-Messi-Neymar trio last season, Barcelona scored 51 goals in the first 6 months this year. Thus, even though Messi was ranked 3rd in La Liga scoring charts, goals were still coming like raindrops for the Catalan giants.

Coming into this season and although Sanchez boarded a flight to England with Suarez moving towards the other direction, the Catalan giants have managed to keep their goal-scoring reputation intact. Even though Suarez hasn’t have an ideal start to his career at the Camp Nou in terms of scoring goals, the South American partnership of Messi and Neymar has kept the goal-scoring charts on a high for Barcelona this season.

At a time when Real Madrid has overshadowed the whole of Europe in terms of scoring goals, Barcelona are not too behind as they have managed a decent 92 goals to their name during the last 6 months.

#2 Bayern Munich (93)

Sitting atop of Bundesliga with an 11 point gap over 2nd placed Wolfsburg, Bayern Munich have enough ammunition in their ranks to add another BUNDESLIGA title to their trophy room early next year. Home of the World Champions and being privileged enough to have 4 World Champions in their starting 11 every week, there is no wonder why the Bavarian giants have been blowing away teams for fun.

In the first half of 2014 while they won the League table comfortably, their strikers were on song as the 4 time European Champions managed 52 goals to their name. Moving on to the new season and even though they weren’t the top spenders in summer, the reigning German Champions have managed 41 goals to their name just before the Christmas break stopped their march towards another League title.

Therefore, Bayern Munich has scored 93 goals during the whole 2014. While Bundesliga has just 18 teams in its top tier, Bayern Munich has achieved this feat by playing 4 matches less than any other team in Europe.

#1 Real Madrid (110)

As expected, it is the Los Blancos which is leading the charts in terms of goals scored during 2014. Talking about the first 6 months of this year when Real Madrid managed a Champions League medal and Copa Del Rey to their name, the Spanish giants managed a mouth-watering 55 goals to their name. Leading the way for them was Cristiano Ronaldo as the Portuguese scored 13 goals in 14 appearances.

Moving towards the 2nd part of 2014 and although some people expected Real Madrid to calm down after winning a double last season, Carlo Ancelloti’s men came back with vengeance in La Liga. Appeared bruised to be left out of the race last year, Real Madrid has certainly made sure to compensate everything this season.

However denying everybody’s expectations, Real Madrid will walk into New Year with a 12 match winning streak after losing two of the first three games of this season. They have scored 55 goals in the second part as well.

Thus, when combined, Real Madrid has scored 110 goals this year and has been the top scorer amongst European teams in their respective leagues in 2014.