We look at the big-game players who perform when it matters in the Champions League knockout stages. Who will step up and decide this year’s winners?
It isn’t quite a prerequisite, but to win the Champions League, you are almost certainly going to need big-game players.
Cristiano Ronaldo is arguably the biggest big-game player the competition has ever seen, and he played a significant role in Real Madrid’s domination throughout the middle part of the 2010s.
After winning four European titles in his last five years at the club, Madrid then went three years without winning it, having lost their best clutch player. Their two successes since have come with their new key man stepping up.
Vinícius Júnior has become the main man for Madrid ever since. He scored the winning goal in the 2018 final win over Liverpool for their next title, and got another in their most recent victory, over Borussia Dortmund at Wembley in 2024.
This week, he stepped up yet again, his match-winning brace at Manchester City securing Madrid’s safe passage through to the quarter-finals. He now has 28 goal involvements (16 goals, 12 assists) in the knockout stages of the Champions League – the joint-sixth-highest total in the competition’s history.
Ronaldo is, predictably, clear at the top of this list, with 82, ahead of several other legends of the game, the chasing pack led by Lionel Messi (61).
Vinícius has moved level with Madrid teammate Kylian Mbappé, and those two could play a big part in their club’s aims to add to their record 15 European Cup/Champions League titles this season.
Madrid have stuttered in the title race in La Liga and were earlier this year eliminated from the Copa del Rey by second-tier Albacete, so the Champions League may represent their best chance of silverware this season, especially given their history as a club that performs on the big stage in Europe in spite of failures elsewhere.
“The best part of the season is now upon us,” Vinícius said after the second-leg win at the Etihad on Tuesday. “We need to step up. Hopefully, in the next games, I can keep scoring and giving assists to help.”
However, those two Madrid stars aren’t the only two clutch players still fighting for Champions League glory in 2025-26. Another was also in action on Tuesday night – and in the goals – elsewhere in England.
Chelsea were hoping for a fast start at Stamford Bridge as they sought to overturn a three-goal first-leg deficit against reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia had other ideas, though, and took the wind out of Chelsea’s sails inside six minutes, controlling a long ball from goalkeeper Matvey Safonov while under pressure from Mamadou Sarr before finishing calmly. In doing so, he settled any PSG nerves and completely ended any hope of a Chelsea comeback.
Kvaratskhelia may have won the Champions League last season, but he is hardly a legend of the competition. This was only his 12th ever Champions League goal but, crucially, it was his seventh in the knockout stages.
That means 58.3% of his Champions League goals have come in knockout matches. Of players to score at least 10 goals in the competition’s history, only six have scored a higher proportion in knockout-stage games.
Last season, he scored all three of his goals in the knockouts, including one in the final against Inter. This season, he already has four in the knockouts, having struck twice off the bench in the first leg against Chelsea, while he also got one in the play-off round against Monaco.
There are a few other current PSG players who also appear high up in the list of players with the highest proportion of goals in the knockouts, in Marquinhos (54.5%), Vitinha (50.0%) and Ousmane Dembélé (45.5%), showing just how many players Luis Enrique has at his disposal who can perform on the big stage.
Barcelona, too, have some of the most effective knockout-stage players in Champions League history on their books.
Of players with at least 10 goal involvements in knockout games in the competition, Raphinha boasts the best rate of providing goals or assists. Over the course of his (admittedly fairly limited) Champions League career, he has averaged 1.28 goal involvements per 90 minutes played.
In 2024-25, he equalled Ronaldo’s record for the most goal involvements in a Champions League season, with 21, and eight of them came after the conclusion of the league phase. He could prove crucial to Barcelona’s chances this time around.
Teammate Robert Lewandowski is playing an increasingly peripheral role for Barça, but he does bring a wealth of experience in the latter stages of the competition to his team. He ranks seventh for goal involvements per 90 in the knockout stages of Champions League games, and this is his 15th season in the competition. He is third overall for goal involvements in the knockouts, behind Ronaldo and Messi.
However, even with all of these very decisive players in tow, there is no guarantee of success. Arsenal don’t have anyone who appears in any of the lists largely because they haven’t had a great deal of joy in this competition in the last few years, but they rightly remain the favourites to win it according to the Opta supercomputer.
It will be interesting to see if their key players can step up when it matters. If not, the Champions League’s proven clutch players may well decide where the trophy goes this season.
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