Lewandowski, Bruno or Ronaldo - Who is the most decisive?

1:49pm on Saturday 27th March 2021
By Robin Bairner

Robert Lewandowski, Bruno Fernandes and Cristiano Ronaldo are all great forwards renowned for popping up at crucial times with vital goals.

But who is most decisive for their team? That is, which forward most often gets the goal that wins the game.

This is easy to measure in a 1-0 win, but in a 3-1 victory, for example, it would be the player who scored the second goal who would be credited with the winner. In a 5-2 success, it would be the player who got the third goals for the winning side, and so on.

Who scores the most match-winning goals in Europe’s Big 5 leagues?

In the competition to be the player with the most match-winning goals in Europe’s Big 5 leagues, it is Bayern Munich’s Lewandowski who is presently running away with the honours. Indeed, in the 25 Bundesliga appearances this season, he has scored the decisive goal on 10 occasions – more than any other player in major European football.

Hot on his coattails is Atletico Madrid forward Luis Suarez, who continues to make Barcelona pay for allowing him to depart last summer. The veteran forward has netted nine decisive goals in 25 outings for Diego Simeone’s side.

Perhaps the most surprising name in the top three, however, is Wolfsburg forward Wout Weghorst, who also boasts nine match-winning goals. Wolfsburg are enjoying a memorable campaign and are third in the Bundesliga. Weghorst has netted more than two-thirds of their critical goals in the 14 games they have won.

Europe’s most decisive strikers

Name	Match-winning goals
Robert Lewandowski (Bayern)	10
Luis Suarez (Atletico)	9
Wout Weghorst (Wolfsburg)	9
Karim Benzema (Madrid)	8
Bruno Fernandes (Man Utd)	8
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Milan)	7
Moise Kean (PSG)	7
Callum Wilson (Newcastle)	7
Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus)	7
Jamie Vardy (Leicester)	7

Where players tied, the one with the fewer games is ranked higher

While there are a clutch of players on seven goals, including Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who both continue to defy age with their exploits in Serie A, there are only another two players with a higher tally.

Karim Benzema continues to impressively shoulder the scoring burden for Real Madrid this season as they chase La Liga honours. Indeed, the Frenchman has eight winning goals in 24 matches, while in the Premier League, Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes is out in front, equalling the Madrid ace and one ahead of Newcastle’s Callum Wilson and Leicester’s Jamie Vardy.

Perhaps the most surprising absentee from this list is Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, who has five match winning goals this season – a tally that is the same as Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland and PSG’s Kylian Mbappe.