The Champions League goal scoring charts have been dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for the last several years and this year too, they are expected to be in the running to finish with the top scorer gong. We will look at the players who have a shot at being the highest goalscorer in the Champions League this season.
The Bayern Munich hitman is one of the best forwards in the game today and he gave a display of his big game credentials when he put four goals past a hapless Real Madrid in a splendid attacking display for his former club Borussia Dortmund in the 2012/13 Champions League campaign. The Poland international has since moved to Bayern Munich, but his goalscoring ability is intact as he displayed earlier this week when he put five past Wolfsburg in mere nine minutes. At the Bavarian giants, he is assured of getting quality service from the likes of Thomas Muller, Mario Gotze and Thiago Alcantara amongst others and is a sure contender for being the topscorer in the Champions League this season.
Neymar
The Brazil international was the joint top scorer along with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the 2014/15 Champions League season with a haul of ten goals. And not just the tally, the 23-year-old gave an evidence of his knack of scoring important goals as he scored in both legs of the quarter-final (against Paris Saint-Germain), both legs of the semi-final (against Bayern Munich) as well as the final against Juventus which sealed a fifth Champions League trophy for Barcelona.
Luis Suarez
While Neymar and Lionel Messi were going about their business and scoring goals by the truckload last season, Luis Suarez wasn’t far behind them and he was always there supplying the duo with quality passes and goalscoring opportunities. He did score some important goals himself to enable Barcelona to claim their fifth Champions League trophy, in his first season at the Camp Nou. And now he has a year of experience with the Catalan giants, add to it the fact that he plays through the centre, flanked by Neymar and Messi on both sides and you get the picture that the Uruguayan will not be short of quality balls to score goals of.
Karim Benzema
The Frenchman may be the most unassuming of the BBC trio of Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and himself, but he is essential to the fortunes of Real Madrid. The striker has been at the Santiago Bernabeu since the summer of 2009 and has gone on to score 138 goals across all competitions for Los Blancos. He has also provided 86 assists for his team-mates and has become an indispensable member of the Real Madrid first team. Last season, he contributed six Champions League goals and two assists and is set to be an important cog in the Real Madrid machine of Rafael Benitez as they attempt to win their 11th European Cup this term.