On the podium of the best in Europe and battling with one… Thomas Muller. Rafa became an assists machine in Benfica’s last games in the League.
In such a way that, having closed the accounts of the European championships after the journey last weekend, the 28-year-old Portuguese only loses to the German player in the total assists in the respective championship. But you don’t see anyone ahead when we talk about average assists per round. There, he is king. Let’s go to the numbers.
The seven assists signed by Rafa in the last two rounds – away, with Famalicão (3), and in Luz, the day before yesterday, with Marítimo (4) – not only catapulted the striker to the leadership of this ranking in Portugal, distancing himself from the dragon Otávio (7 out of 14 games), as they put him among the great names of football in the Old Continent.
The current 13 passes for goal achieved by Rafa in 14 of the 15 rounds (only round 13 missed, with Gil Vicente, in Barcelos) have already been scratched from the calendar, with regard to the top five European leagues – England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy – make the Portuguese international, at this time, the second best assistant, only surpassed by Bayern Munich’s German, who have two more assists (15) than the Portuguese, but also have three more games played.
Which means that, averaging assists per game, Rafa is the most productive player in this ranking, with 0.93 assists per matchday.
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