Records, milestones, key stats and facts from last night's Champions League action

Iker Casillas now has 151 Champions League appearancesAfter spell-binding action on the first Matchday in the Champions League, the second day did not let down, continuing from where Groups A to D left things. The day saw the likes of Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Arsenal in action as another set of 16 sides started their 2015/16 campaign.The road to Champions League glory has just begin for these sides but some have already impressed with their showings on Matchday 2. A day that saw 10 penalties awarded in 8 games, also witnessed the teams and individuals in action reach some milestones themselves. There were also a couple of records set and intriguing statistics recorded that shuld provide some indication as to where the teams stand currently and what they need to do going forward to achieve their goals.

#1 English defeats

Olivier Giroud was sent off in the first half for Arsenal

Matchday 1 saw both English teams lose their games and the dismal start for Premier League teams continued as Arsenal lost 2-1 to Dinamo Zagreb, making history in the process as it marked the first time in the Champions League that 3 English teams have lost on opening day.

To put that in perspective, Premier League teams had a splendid record between 2005 to 2011 when no English team lost their opening games. That number increased to 1 in 2012 and 2013, 2 in 2014 and now 3 teams have registered disappointing defeats to start their Champions League campaigns. In fact, the decline has been such that since 2011, there has been no matchday when all 4 English teams registered wins in the competition.

It has sparked an interesting debate on the decline of English clubs in Europe as none of them made it to even the quarter-final stage of the competition last time around. They will have to turn their dismal start around if they are to make any sort of mark on this season’s competition.

#2 100 appearances for Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi will not be worried about his recent lack of goals

Having been involved in more than half of Barcelona’s Champions League goals last season, Lionel Messi failed to conjure one for his side on this occasion as they were held to a 1-1 draw in stunning fashion by Roma. In terms of scoring or assisting in the competition, it makes this Messi’s longest UCL drought (3 games) since September 2008 when he didn’t score or assist in 4 consecutive games.

However, the game marked Lionel Messi’s 100th European appearance for Barcelona making him the youngest player to reach that mark at 28 years & 84 days, surpassing Real Madrid legend Raul’s record. A breakdown of his games shows 50 group stage ties and 50 knockout games played so far, 58 of which have been wins, 28 draws and 14 defeats.

He wasn’t alone in reaching the 100-games mark as Philip Lahm also made a century of appearances in the Champions League for Bayern Munich, moving ahead of Michael Ballack for them and only 3 behind legendary German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn.

#3 Muller joint top European goalscoring charts

Muller is currently Bayern’s top goalscorer with 8 goals

Matchday 1 was all about Real Madrid superstar Ronaldo’s splendid 8 goals in 2 games which makes him the top goalscorer in Europe, currently. He would be joined there just a day later by Bayern Munich’s Thomas Muller who has had an inspired start for the defending German champions.

The 26-year-old became the first Bayern Munich player and German international to score in 8 consecutive Champions League campaigns. It goes a long way in furthering his reputation as one of the most consistent modern day goalscorers.

The Raumdeuter has achieved his superb tally of goals in only 6 games so far and few would bet against him finishing the season as top scorer at Bayern this season as he is set to continue his great form for Pep Guardiola’s side.

*Borussia Dortmund’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan has scored 9 goals so far but 5 of them came in Europa League qualifiers and hence have not been considered for this list.

#4 Wenger records 50 Champions League losses

Wenger was not happy with the refereeing in the clash against Dinamo Zagreb

If Arsenal’s loss wasn’t bad enough, there’s some more unwelcome news for their boss as Arsene Wenger became the first manager to lose 50 games in the Champions League (discounting qualifiers). These 50 losses have come over 168 games that he managed with Arsenal, only 4 teams have more appearances in the UCL than the French manager.

It’s not a record that Wenger will be proud of, but simply his participation in the competition makes for a record as this is the 19th edition that he has been a part of which is the most by a manager in history. The Arsenal boss surpassed former Manchester United manager Sir Alex ferguson for the record.

Arsenal have 76 wins in the competition, the highest among teams who have not won the UCL title, and they will need to find some more wins if they want to have any hopes of overturning the latter half of that statistic.

#5 Diego Costa\'s first UCL goal with Chelsea

Costa scored his first Champions League goal for Chelsea in their 4-0 win

Diego Costa went an entire season without scoring for Chelsea in the Champions League, which means that the last time he scored in the competition was with Atletico Madrid, incidentally against his current employers in the semifinal of the 2013-14 edition.

The Spanish striker broke his UCL duck for Chelsea by scoring against Maccabi Tel Aviv from a Cesc Fabregas assist. While the Chelsea midfielder recorded his 200th career assist, Costa would have been glad to see the back of his 542 minute goal drought in the UCL.

One player, though, who continued to struggle to find form for Chelsea is Eden Hazard. He missed an early penalty on the night, squandering the chance to give his side the initiative in the game. Chelsea were not punished in the end as they won 4-0 with Oscar scoring a penalty in the process, but he will join illustrious company due to that miss as Hazard becomes one of the 4 players to miss over 3 penalties in the competition since 2006/07. The other three are Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Van Nistelrooy.

#6 Miscellaneous

Hulk is now Zenit’s top European goalscorer

Iker Casillas reached a landmark 151 appearances in the Champions League equalling the all-time leader Xavi on that list. The Porto goalkeeper has appeared in 17 UCl editions equaling Paul Scholes’ tally and coming to within 2 of Ryan Giggs who has 19.

There were 10 penalties awarded on this matchday of the 2015/16 season, the highest since matchday 2 in 2010/11.

Hulk, who scored twice for Zenit last night, became the club’s highest Champions League goalscorer going ahead of Roman Shirokov and Danny.

Arsenal have not won four consecutive UCL away games since 2006.