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Quarter-final first-leg facts and figures

UEFA.com's resident statistician trawls through the archives and picks out the best facts, figures and milestones to have emerged from the quarter-final first-leg matches.

Bebras Natcho was one of three penalty scorers in the quarter-final first legs
Bebras Natcho was one of three penalty scorers in the quarter-final first legs ©Getty Images

From the end of one run to the extension of another, UEFA.com's in-house statistician pulls out ten of the most interesting facts and figures to have emerged from the UEFA Europa League quarter-final first legs.

• The last unbeaten record for a club involved from the start of the group stage ended as S.S. Lazio, after ten games without defeat in the competition proper, lost 2-0 to Fenerbahçe SK in Istanbul.

• Lazio became the first team, out of 32 participants, to fail to score in the first leg of a UEFA Europa League quarter-final.

• SL Benfica maintained their 100% record in this season's UEFA Europa League since transferring from the UEFA Champions League, registering their fifth win out of five – 3-1 at home to Newcastle United FC.

• Benfica are the only quarter-finalist to have reached this phase of the competition before. On each of the two previous occasions, they won the home leg first. In 2009/10, a 2-1 success in Lisbon proved insufficient as they lost the return 4-1 at Liverpool FC; in 2010/11 they defeated PSV Eindhoven 4-1 and prevailed 6-3 on aggregate.

• Benfica's failure to progress against Liverpool three years ago is one of just two instances in the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals where a side has won the home leg first but been eliminated. The other occurred in 2011/12 when Valencia CF overturned a 2-1 reverse at AZ Alkmaar with a 4-0 victory in Spain.

• No team had ever previously led 3-1 or 2-0 from the first leg of a UEFA Europa League quarter-final; the only previous case of a 2-2 draw in the opening leg, between Valencia and Club Atlético de Madrid in 2009/10, prefigured an away-goals triumph for Atlético after a goalless second leg.

• Just two clubs have ever recovered a two-goal first-leg deficit in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase – Fulham FC against Juventus in the 2009/10 round of 16 (1-3, 4-1) and FC Steaua Bucureşti in this season's round of 32 against AFC Ajax (0-2, 2-0, 4-2 on penalties).

• Benfica's win against Newcastle was their 19th in 27 UEFA Europa League matches and their 13th out of 14 games in Lisbon, group stage to final, the other being a draw.

• Óscar Cardozo's penalty for Benfica against Newcastle took his tally in the UEFA Europa League to 17, which equals the competition high by a player for one club, Falcao, who scored the same number for FC Porto among his record aggregate haul of 31.

• Penalties were awarded – and converted – in three of the four quarter-final first legs, all for handball.