Player Focus: European Hotshot Mario Gomez

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s goalscoring exploits may be the talk of world football at the moment, but there is another player who could light up the stage at the Allianz Arena on Saturday: Mario Gomez. The German striker has scored 41 goals in all competitions this season and 12 in 11 in the Champions League (two short of Messi), including two against Manchester City in Bayern’s 2-0 win. Overall his record in the competition in the last two seasons stands at 19 games played and 20 goals, and he can now boast the best minutes-to-goals ratio in the history of the competition:

Best minutes-to-goals ratio in the Champions League – all-time

What has been key for the German international has been his ability to convert chances, netting with nearly one in three chances in the Champions League this season, well ahead of Chelsea’s Didier Drogba and even Lionel Messi, likely a result of his impressive shooting accuracy: only Robin van Persie (88%) can boast a better ratio of shots on target:

Champions League 2011-12 – Player stats

Chelsea are at a rare disadvantage in this final in that they find themselves essentially playing a supposedly neutral match at an away ground (only the fourth time this has happened in the Champions League/European Cup), where Gomez has been nothing less than astounding this season:

Gomez – Games and Goals at the Allianz Arena in 2011/12: