Most goals in UCL knockouts in a single season: Ronaldo and Benzema share the record
Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema share the record of 10 Champions League knockout goals in one season. Here are the best knockout campaigns since 2003-04.
May 5, 2022 · Updated Oct 19, 2026
The record for the most goals in the knockout rounds of a single UEFA Champions League season is 10, and two Real Madrid forwards share it: Cristiano Ronaldo, who set it in 2016-17, and Karim Benzema, who matched it in 2021-22.
Ronaldo appears three times among the 10 best knockout-stage seasons since 2003-04, the year the knockout phase began with a two-legged round of 16. No one has reached nine since Benzema. The nearest are Erling Haaland, with seven for Manchester City in 2022-23, and Ousmane Dembélé and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, with seven each for Paris Saint-Germain in 2025-26.
Most goals in UEFA Champions League knockouts in one season
| Player | Club | Goals | Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karim Benzema | Real Madrid | 10 | 2021-22 |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | 10 | 2016-17 |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | 8 | 2013-14 |
| Lionel Messi | FC Barcelona | 8 | 2011-12 |
| Khvicha Kvaratskhelia | Paris Saint-Germain | 7 | 2025-26 |
| Ousmane Dembélé | Paris Saint-Germain | 7 | 2025-26 |
| Erling Haaland | Manchester City | 7 | 2022-23 |
| Sadio Mané | Liverpool | 7 | 2017-18 |
| Neymar | FC Barcelona | 7 | 2014-15 |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | 7 | 2011-12 |
The table counts every knockout match from the round of 16 to the final, including extra time but not penalty shoot-outs, for the seasons from 2003-04 to 2025-26. Since 2024-25 the knockout phase has also included a play-off round, and one of Kvaratskhelia’s seven goals came there, against Monaco.
Cristiano Ronaldo, 2016-17: 10 goals
Ronaldo did not score in the round of 16 against Napoli, then scored in every knockout tie after it. He got five across the two legs of the quarter-final against Bayern Munich, two in Munich and a hat-trick in Madrid, as Real won 6-3 on aggregate.
He followed it with a hat-trick against Atlético Madrid in the first leg of the semi-final, and finished the campaign with two goals in the final against Juventus in Cardiff, which Real Madrid won 4-1 for their second Champions League title in a row.
Ronaldo also scored eight knockout goals for Real Madrid in 2013-14: four against Schalke in the round of 16, one against Borussia Dortmund, two in Munich in the semi-final, and a penalty in the 4-1 win over Atlético Madrid in the final.
Karim Benzema, 2021-22: 10 goals
Benzema’s 10 came in five matches. With Real Madrid 2-0 down on aggregate to Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16, he scored a hat-trick in the second leg at the Santiago Bernabéu to win the tie 3-2.
He scored another hat-trick in the first leg of the quarter-final at Chelsea, the defending champions, and added a goal in the second leg as Real went through 5-4 on aggregate.
In the semi-final against Manchester City he scored twice in a 4-3 defeat at the Etihad Stadium, then levelled Ronaldo’s record with a penalty in extra time of the second leg in Madrid, which Real won 3-1 for a 6-5 aggregate win. He did not score in the final, a 1-0 win over Liverpool at the Stade de France, but finished the season as the competition’s top scorer with 15 goals.
Lionel Messi, 2011-12: 8 goals
Messi scored eight knockout goals for FC Barcelona in 2011-12, six of them against Bayer Leverkusen in the round of 16, including all five in a 7-1 second-leg win at the Camp Nou. He added two penalties against AC Milan in the quarter-final, but Barcelona went out to Chelsea in the semi-final.
The closest since 2022
Haaland scored five in one match, Manchester City’s 7-0 win over RB Leipzig in the 2022-23 round of 16, and added one in each leg of the quarter-final against Bayern Munich, but did not score in the semi-final or in City’s 1-0 final win over Inter.
In 2025-26, two Paris Saint-Germain forwards both reached seven. Dembélé scored in the round of 16 against Chelsea, twice at Liverpool in the quarter-final, three times against Bayern Munich in the semi-final, and from the penalty spot in the 1-1 final against Arsenal in Budapest, which PSG won on penalties. Kvaratskhelia’s seven included the goal against Monaco in the play-off round, three against Chelsea, one against Liverpool and two against Bayern.
For the full list of champions, see our UEFA Champions League winners list, and for Benzema’s wider record, our Karim Benzema career stats.
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Featured photo: TORU YAMANAKA / AFP