Roma help Barcelona set Champions League own-goal record

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Roma help Barcelona set Champions League own-goal record image

In a case of the rich getting richer, Barcelona are getting a massive amount of help in front of goal from their Champions League opponents this season. 

Own goals from Daniele De Rossi and Kostas Manolas helped the Catalan club to a 4-1 win in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie with Roma on Wednesday, and the own-goal double pushed the Spanish giants to a new Champions League record. 

Barcelona have now benefited from five own goals in Europe this campaign, the most ever for one team in the history of the Champions League. 

In fact, own goals have played into Barcelona's hands so much this campaign that they now trail only Lionel Messi in accounting for the club's strikes, with Messi having scored six times in the Champions League this term. 

And if you were wondering, Roma are not the first team to score multiple own goals in a single Champions League match. 

The Italian side are actually the fourth team to reach that unwanted mark, with the last instance coming from Galatasaray in a match against FC Astana in 2015.

To make matters worse for Roma and future opponents, Luis Suarez also decided to get in on the act. 

The Uruguayan broke a year-long run without a Champions League goal against the Serie A side, having last scored against PSG in March of 2017. The streak for Suarez spanned 392 days and 1058 minutes of match action.

The club also benefited from a strike from Gerard Pique, who, with 12 Champions League goals to his name, now trails only Roberto Carlos (16) and Ivan Helguera (15) among defenders in terms of Champions League scoring. 

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