The list of the most clutch Champions League goalscorers is predictably headed by the tournament’s most prolific player, Cristiano Ronaldo. Manchester City icon Sergio Agüero can match the Portuguese legend and now a certain Ricardo Pepi has joined the select group.
The U.S. men’s national team (USMNT) hopeful scored his third decisive stoppage-time goal in club soccer’s most prestigious continental tournament on Tuesday evening, snatching a 1–1 draw for PSV Eindhoven in the 93rd-minute of a trip to Olympiacos. Pepi has a habit for pulling the rabbit out of the hat on big European nights.
Pepi’s first-ever Champions League goal was a 92nd-minute winner against Sevilla back in November 2023. The Texan forward had barely been on the pitch for 10 minutes by the time he nodded in, completing a dramatic turnaround after PSV had been trailing by two goals.
The Eindhoven outfit also found themselves 2–0 down to Shakhtar Donetsk in last season’s league phase. Fellow U.S. forward Malik Tillman scored twice in the final two minutes of normal time before Pepi popped up with another winner while the clock read 95.
Ricardo Pepi’s Clutch Champions League Goals
In the 33-year history of the Champions League in its modern format, no player can better Pepi’s tally of three goals in second-half stoppage time which positively changed the result, per Opta.
Ronaldo’s total haul of European goals may dwarf Pepi—and every other player—yet only three of his 140 strikes in the competition fit the clutch criteria. Intriguingly, all three of his decisive late goals were scored for Manchester United. During his first spell at Old Trafford, Ronaldo notably sunk the aspirations of his boyhood club Sporting CP with a dagger of a stoppage-time free-kick in 2007.
Fourteen years, five titles and two different clubs (Real Madrid and Juventus) arrived before Ronaldo’s next late Champions League winner. Back at Old Trafford, but this time under the stewardship of his former teammate Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Ronaldo sniffed out a scratchy swipe against Villarreal, peeling away to the corner flag as the Theatre of Dreams erupted into a chorus of “Viva Ronaldo!” which lasted long after the final whistle.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Clutch Champions League Goals
“Sometimes it is not about ‘pass there, pass there,’ it is the crowd—and they have sucked it in before—and when you have Cristiano on the pitch, you always have a chance. He is so good in front of goal and he has an impact on everyone,” Solskjær gushed. “That is what happens at Old Trafford.”
It can also also happen in Bergamo.
Barely a month after his heroics against Villarreal, Ronaldo nabbed a 91st-minute equalizer on an away day at Atalanta. Solskjær, whose entire managerial career seems to be one long exercise in nostalgia, called upon the memory of basketball’s greatest clutch player. “We all have our roles and responsibilities,” the manager beamed. “He is a leader.
“He does provide those moments. I am sure Chicago Bulls didn’t mind having Michael Jordan.”
Now there’s a new U.S. athlete who warrants comparison to Ronaldo.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as USMNT World Cup Hopeful Ties Cristiano Ronaldo’s Clutch Champions League Goal Record.