Van der Sar falls short of Verlinden mark

By conceding early in Manchester United FC's 2-1 win against Newcastle United FC last night, Edwin van der Sar fell just 79 minutes short of former Club Brugge KV goalkeeper Dany Verlinden's record of 1,390 without conceding a goal in a European top flight. uefa.com salutes the top ten in that reckoning, all of whom trail Brazilian world record holder Mazarópi, who did not concede for CR Vasco da Gama from 18 May 1977 until 7 September 1978 – 1,816 playing minutes.

1,390 minutes: Dany Verlinden, Club Brugge KV
Verlinden won five Belgian titles with the Black and Blues in a 16-year spell between 1988 and 2004, and once held the record – later broken by Alessandro Costacurta – for being the oldest player in the UEFA Champions League. He was 40 years, three months and 24 days old when he featured against AFC Ajax in December 2003. His claim to fame, though, remains this incredible run which spanned 16 matches from 3 March 1990 to 26 September 1990.

1,311 minutes: Edwin van der Sar, Manchester United FC
Even before his recent heroics Van der Sar already was in the record books as the Netherlands' most-capped played with 130 appearances, as well as having achieved the feat of winning the UEFA Champions League 13 years apart with different clubs: 1995 at AFC Ajax and 2008 for United. When he was beaten by Samir Nasri in Arsenal FC's 2-1 defeat of United on 8 November last year, few thought that feat would be unmatched in the league until Peter Løvenkrands's strike for Newcastle nearly four months later.

1,275: Abel Resino, Club Atlético de Madrid
Resino started his 14-match streak on 25 November 1990 and went on until 17 March 1991 before a young Luis Enrique of Real Sporting de Gijón finally brought it to an end. Atlético finished runners-up to FC Barcelona in the league that season but Resino, whose Liga record still stands, collected the Zamora trophy awarded to the goalkeeper with the best record in the top flight. Resino is now coach at the Vicente Calderón.

1,221: Marios Praxitelous, AC Omonia
The Cypriot goalkeeper wrote his name into the record books with a run lasting from 25 October 1981 until 13 February 1982, helping Omonia to the second of five straight league titles

1,192: Vítor Baía, FC Porto
The long-time Porto No1 holds the record in Portugal set during the 1991/92 title-winning campaign. Porto would concede just eleven goals in 34 matches that season, with current Sporting Clube de Portugal coach Paulo Bento – then playing for Vitória SC – finally ending Vítor Baía's run from the penalty spot.

1,190: Dimitar Ivankov, PFC Levski Sofia
Not content to simply make saves, Bulgarian international Ivankov also scored four penalties during a run spanning two seasons, kicking off in a 3-2 win against rivals PFC CSKA Sofia on 6 March 1999. Ivankov, 33, is still playing, and scoring, for Bursaspor in Turkey.

1,176: Gaëtan Huard, FC Girondins de Bordeaux
Huard's unbeaten run started on 4 December 1992 during a 5-0 loss at Paris Saint-Germain FC. He did not play the following game but was unbeaten for 12 full matches after that. The series ended on 10 April 1993 with an own goal from midfielder Éric Guérit 79 minutes into a 2-1 home win over Montpellier Hérault SC. "I wanted to make amends after the game in Paris," Huard said. "The longer the run went on, the more we went on the pitch determined to avoid conceding. The 2-1 win against Montpellier felt like a hammer blow."

1,156: Ibrahim Mujkić, FK Budućnost Banovići
Mujkić managed to span two millennia with his feat in Bosnia-Herzegovina, not conceding from 20 November 1999 until 16 May 2000.

1,154: Denis Romanenco, FC Zimbru Chişinău
Romanenco's record stretched from 18 September 1998 until 13 July 1999 at the Moldovan club he represented between 1992 and 2003. Indeed, in the 1998/99 campaign the champions shipped only nine goals in 26 fixtures. After spells in Russia and Kazakhstan he is now back in his homeland playing for FC Dacia Chişinău.

1,127: Viktor Bannikov, FC Dynamo Kyiv
Bannikov kept 138 clean sheets in eight years at Dynamo, and was voted the Soviet Union's best goalkeeper in 1964 and 1970, not bad for a contemporary of Lev Yashin. He joined Dynamo in 1961 and did not concede a league goal between 7 August 1967 and 17 April 1968, spanning two Soviet title-winning campaigns. After spells at FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and FC Torpedo Moskva he retired in 1973, going on to coach the team of the Ukrainian republic in the USSR. After independence, he presided over the new Football Federation of Ukraine. He stepped down in 2001 and died on 25 April that year. He is among those on the UEFA Ruby Order of Merit.