Who are Neymar's favourite opponents?

Brazil's all-time top scorer in UEFA club competition with 41 goals, Neymar continues to score at an impressive rate for Paris, but which teams bring out the best in him?

• Neymar failed to score in his first five UEFA Champions League games for Barcelona, but the dam burst on 11 December 2013 when the Brazilian scored a hat-trick in a 6-1 group stage defeat of Celtic at the Camp Nou.

• That first hat-trick was scored inside 15 minutes, Neymar finding the net in the 44th, 48th and 58th minutes. He got his second – and first for Paris – against Crvena zvezda in the 2018/19 competition (20, 22, 81), and struck his third (21, 38, 50) against İstanbul Başakşehir in December 2020.

• Statistics suggest that Başakşehir, Celtic and Crvena zvezda are his favourite opponents, though it is easy to see why Paris were so keen to sign him in summer 2017; he had scored seven goals against them in six games for Barcelona.

• Neymar has found the net against 17 of the 26 sides he has met in Europe. To date, Napoli and Roma have kept him at bay for the longest: 180 minutes without conceding.

Who has Neymar scored against in UEFA competition?

• Neymar has taken on sides from 12 nations in the UEFA Champions League, and to date the only country that has a collective clean sheet against the Brazilian is Cyprus – though that only amounts to 90 minutes of Barcelona's 1-0 win against APOEL in the 2014/15 group stage.

• Cyprus aside, he averages a goal a game or better against teams from Belarus, France, Scotland, Serbia and Turkey.

• To date, he has scored only once in six games against Spanish sides, and once in ten meetings with Serie A clubs. Five goals have come in 16 meetings with Premier League sides, although Bundesliga representatives have more reason to be cautious – Neymar averages a goal every 180 minutes against German teams.

Which nations' clubs has Neymar scored against?

When Neymar has scored his UEFA Champions League goals

• The message for Neymar's opponents is don't drop off if he doesn't score in the first ten minutes; 13 of his 41 goals in the UEFA Champions League have been scored between the 11th and 30th minutes of games.

Neymar celebrates Barcelona's 6-1 win against Paris©AFP/Getty Images

• The Brazilian's other big scoring hotspot is the final minutes – plus added time: six goals between the 85th minute and the final whistle (two of those in Barcelona's 6-1 comeback win against Paris from 2017).

Last updated: 28/01/2022