Who are Edinson Cavani's favourite opponents?

Edinson Cavani is set for a swift return to the UEFA Champions League after signing for Manchester United on transfer deadline day, with his new side's first group stage meeting of the year taking the Uruguayan back to his old club, Paris. UEFA.com perms through the 33-year-old's European stats.

• Cavani made his UEFA competition debut for Palermo back in 2007, failing to score in a UEFA Cup first round tie against Mladá Boleslav, which his side lost on penalties.

El Matador has been in Europe since 2007©AFP/Getty Images

• Both Cavani's European hat-tricks came for Napoli in the UEFA Europa League – a treble in a 3-3 draw with Utrecht in December 2010 and a four-goal haul against Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in November 2012.

• The striker's longest drought came between 30 September 2015 and 16 February 2016 – a run of 380 minutes that included Matchdays 2 through to 6. Introduced as a 74th-minute substitute against Chelsea in the round of 16 first leg, Cavani struck four minutes later to end his barren run.

• Although Cavani has scored more goals in the UEFA Champions League (35 in 62 games) than the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League (14 in 19 games, including qualifying), he boasts a better goals-per-game average in the latter competition (0.74) than the former (0.56).

• Cavani's European average of one goal every 129m 36s is impressive, though not quite as dramatic as those of Lionel Messi (a goal every 102m 2s) or Cristiano Ronaldo (one every 115m 31s).

Who has Cavani scored against in UEFA competition?

• United meet Paris, Leipzig and İstanbul Başakşehir in the group stage: all teams that El Matador has yet to face in UEFA competition. He has never faced French opponents in Europe but scored 138 goals in 200 Ligue 1 matches.

• Cavani has found German defences hard to breach – he has only scored once in six games against Bundesliga sides – but registered in his only previous encounter against a Turkish side, finding the net from the spot in a 22-minute cameo against Galatasaray last season.

• Cavani has struck more goals against English clubs (eight) than sides from any other nation; Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City have all been breached by the Uruguayan. He failed to find the target in his only appearance against United (no disgrace since he came on as an added-time substitute) but also failed to score against the Reds' arch-rivals Liverpool in four attempts.

• Former side Napoli are one of only nine clubs against whom Cavani has never found the net in UEFA competition – the others are Club Brugge, Dortmund, Liverpool, Leverkusen, Manchester United, Shakhtar and Czech league rivals Mladá Boleslav and Viktoria Plzeň. Indeed, the only nations whose clubs Cavani has never scored against are the Czech Republic and Italy.

Which nations' clubs has Cavani scored against?

When Cavani has scored his UEFA Champions League goals

• Beware Cavani in the closing stages: the Uruguayan has scored nine of his 49 goals – almost 20% – after the 85-minute mark.

• The Paris No9 has never missed a penalty in UEFA competition, converting three for the French giants and four for Napoli.

Last updated: 06/10/20