Week in Numbers: Ghana's fifth straight AFCON semis, Gloom, glory and Sydney celebrations
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FIFA.com's latest stats review will make pleasant reading for some and act as a miserable reminder for others, with fans of Aston Villa, Bayern Munich and Parma advised to look away while Australia and Ghana supporters savour the details of their teams' successes.
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minutes of Premier League action have now passed since Aston Villa last scored, resulting in a new and unwanted club record. Never before in the Birmingham outfit's 141-year history had they ever failed to score in six successive league matches, until Sunday's 5-0 defeat at Arsenal left them facing up to just that statistic. Nor can this recent run be described as a blip, with Villa having managed just 11 league goals all season - comfortably the lowest tally in all four English divisions. Indeed in the history of the country's top flight, no-one has ever had a lower goal return after 23 matches than Paul Lambert's toothless team.
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straight away losses is the sequence that has earned Parma a new club record. Never before had I Ducali endured such a miserable run of results on the road, with over four months having now passed since their one and only away match this season that did not end in defeat. Parma's latest reverse came at the hands of a struggling AC Milan side that had been without a win since 14 December. I Rossoneri's city rivals have been faring little better and they endured another weekend to forget, going down 3-1 at Sassuolo. It was the third time this season that Inter have lost two games on the bounce but few would have expected it against a side that, in three previous meetings with I Nerazzurri, had lost by an aggregate score of 15-0.
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consecutive CAF Africa Cup of Nations semi-final appearances have now been racked up by Ghana, setting a new competition record. The Black Stars maintained their record of having qualified for the last four in every edition since 2008 by beating Guinea 3-0 on Sunday. The result also extended to six matches their unbeaten record against the Syli Nationale at the Cup of Nations, and established them as the tournament's top scorers thus far with seven. The quarter-finals proved to be high-scoring affairs overall, with 16 goals across the four games equalling the record for this stage of the African showpiece. Congo DR edged the pick of the matches, coming from two down to beat neighbours Congo 4-2 and qualify for the semi-finals for just the second time in the last 41 years.
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Wolfsburg goals handed Pep Guardiola the worst away league defeat of his managerial career on Friday. The shock 4-1 result saw the hosts equal in the space of 90 minutes the number of Bundesliga goals Bayern Munich had hitherto conceded all season. It was the first time that Bayern had conceded four or more goals since April 2009, when they lost 5-1 to the same opponents, who that season went on to become champions. Bas Dost, meanwhile, became the first player in 102 Bundesliga games to score a brace against the Bavarian giants, a feat that was later matched by team-mate Kevin De Bruyne.
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different continental titles have been won by the same men's team for the first time after Australia lifted the AFC Asian Cup on Saturday. The Socceroos had previously lifted the OFC Nations Cup, and beating Korea Republic at the weekend also enabled Tim Cahill and Mark Bresciano - the two survivors of Australia's most recent triumph in Oceania, in 2004 - to become the first male players to pick up winner's medals from two different continental championships. The Socceroos were worthy winners, emerging as the tournament's highest scorers - with 14 from six matches - and second-best defensive record with only three goals conceded. Beaten finalists Korea Republic conceded just twice, but both their goals against came in a thrilling decider, which was settled after extra time. For the Taeguk Warriors, defeat extended their remarkable drought in a competition they last won 55 years ago.
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