Michael Owen makes Euro history

Michael Owen scored his 21st goal in European competitions versus Olimpia Ljubljana in Slovenia. Owen has now scored more goals in Europe for LFC than any other player breaking Ian Rush's record of 20 goals.

Let's compare Rush and Owen. Liverpool's European ban from 1985-1991 and Liverpool's failure to qualify in 1993-1994 and 1994-1995 made it impossible for Ian Rush to score a Liverpool goal in Europe for 7 seasons. Rushie scored his 20th goal in his 33rd European game, failing to score in his last 5 Euro outings. His last European goal came in 1992, four years previous to his last game for LFC.

Owen scored his 20th in his 42nd game. He drew a blank against Celtic home and away, but finally broke Rushie's record in his 45th European game. Owen scored his first European goal only 6 minutes into his debut against Celtic in Scotland 16.09.1997. He added two in the 1998-99 season against Kosice and Celta Vigo in the UEFA Cup. Liverpool failed to qualify for Europe in 1999-2000, but Owen's goalscoring in Europe finally took off in 2000-2001 and he's scored on a regular basis ever since.

Here you can see how the top 15 of LFC's goalscorers in Europe looks like. Here is a further breakdown of Owen's goal record in Europe. Owen scored 1 goal in European Super Cup, 11 in UEFA Cup and 9 in Champions League.