The Greek forward is the league’s top scorer with 17 goals, but eight of them came from penalties.
Vangelis Pavlidis regained the lead in the league’s top scorers list last Saturday, with a hat-trick in the victory over Estoril at the Estádio da Luz (3-1), at the end of the first half of the championship, bringing his total to 17 goals. However, almost half of the Greek striker’s goals, eight, were scored from the penalty spot; in fact, the Benfica striker is currently the player with the most penalties converted in all European leagues.
With three more goals in the championship, Pavlidis once again overtook Sporting’s Luis Suárez at the top of the goalscoring charts, finishing the first half of the season with an average of one goal per game, that is, 17 goals in 17 games.
Almost half of these goals, more precisely eight, were scored from penalties, with the detail that the Greek striker has an immaculate record in this aspect, having converted all eight penalties he was called upon to take (9 if we add one more in the Portuguese Cup, against Atlético).
Some of these eight penalties were indeed decisive for Benfica’s current league position, as was the case in the victories over Estrela da Amadora (1-0), Gil Vicente (2-1) or Famalicão (1-0), but also in the draw with Casa Pia (2-2). Pavlidis even scored two penalties in the same game, in this case in the thrashing of Arouca (5-0).
As a matter of interest, Pavlidis’ first two penalties were scored away from home, the first in the 2nd round, in Amadora (1-0) and the second in the 6th round, in Vila das Aves (3-0), but the remaining six were all scored at the Estádio da Luz.
Pavlidis ahead of Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé
With this tally of eight converted penalties, Pavlidis is the player with the most goals from the penalty spot among the top ten European leagues, standing out ahead of Harry Kane, the English striker for Bayern Munich who, so far, has also converted all six penalties he has been called upon to take.
After Harry Kane, there are three more players with five penalties scored this season, starting with Ricky van Wolfswinkel, former Sporting striker, currently playing for Dutch side Twente at age 36. Next is another player from the Portuguese league, Rodrigo Zalazar of Sp. Braga, also with five goals. To this group we must also add Kylian Mbappé, the biggest star of Real Madrid, who has also scored five penalties, but has already missed one.