Real Madrid top teams in big five leagues for goalscoring

Real Madrid are the highest scorers among the teams that make up Europe’s big five leagues at this point in the season.

With roughly a third of the campaign played, Carlo Ancelotti’s men have found the back of the net 62 times in their 20 official matches played – a rate of 3.1 goals per game. They are the only team of the 98 teams that make up the big five – the top leagues in Spain, England, Italy, Germany and France – to average more than three a game.

Stats published by the International Federation for Football History & Statistics showed Bayern Munich and Manchester City follow just behind the nine-time European Cup winners. The current champions of Europe, now led by Pep Guardiola, have scored 60 times in 23 matches, at an average of 2.6 a game, with Manuel Pellegrini’s Citizens have notched up 59 goals in 20 matches, at a rate of 2.9 a game.

Atletico de Madrid are the next best placed La Liga outfit with 54 goals from 22 games, while reigning champions Barcelona have one less having played the same amount as Diego Simeone’s side.

Following a slow start to the campaign in which Ancelotti’s team scraped a last minute win over Elche and drew with newly-promoted Villarreal, they have picked up in recent weeks, coinciding with the return to form and fitness of Gareth Bale.

Los Blancos lost the Clasico 2-1 at the end of October, but since then have notched up some big wins, including putting seven past Sevilla, five past Real Sociedad and registering four against Valladolid. Much of that has been down to the form and understanding between the front three of Bale, Benzema and Cristiano – nicknamed the BBC by the Spanish press.