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Marc-André ter Stegen is just 49 minutes away from breaking his personal record of not conceding while playing for Barcelona, says Mundo Deportivo. Only, they’re wrong. He’s not.
Let’s look at the numbers:
He last conceded a goal against Las Palmas in the 48th minute, and since then, he’s kept clean sheets against Atlético Madrid, Málaga, Athletic Bilbao, and Chelsea, for a total of 402 minutes. Good so far.
But MD is wrong after that, here’s my translation:
Ter Stegen’s longest streak since he arrived at Camp Nou in the summer of 2014 was also this same season. It was at the start, since he conceded Real Madrid’s second goal in the second leg of the Spanish Supercup. Betis, Alavés, Espanyol in the Liga, and Juventus in the UEFA Champions League did not [sic] beat him. It was Getafe in the 39th minute of the fifth round of the league when he achieved it in the 39th minute [sic]. In total, 450 minutes.
The writing errors marked with [sic] are not mine.
Anyway, although it’s true that Ter Stegen was not beaten in 450 minutes in that time period, what’s not true is that that is Ter Stegen’s best mark. It’s actually 564, and it happened in 2016.
It started with the last 2 minutes of a 2-0 loss to Atlético Madrid. Then, he came on as a sub against Betis to play 2 minutes. After that came clean sheets against Espanyol, Granada, then Sevilla in the Copa final (which was 120 minutes), then the next season’s second league match against Athletic, then one more in the Champions League against Celtic, and finally, 80 minutes in, conceding in the league against Leganés. That all adds up to 564 minutes, much more than the current streak.
Here it is in table form:
Ter Stegen Unbeaten Streak
| Competition | Date | Home/Away | Team | Score | Minutes w/o Conceding |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competition | Date | Home/Away | Team | Score | Minutes w/o Conceding |
| UCL quarter-finals 2nd leg | 4/13/16 | A | Atlético Madrid | 2:0 | 2 |
| La Liga 36 | 4/30/16 | A | Real Betis (13.) | 0:2 | 2 |
| La Liga 37 | 5/8/16 | H | Espanyol (14.) | 5:0 | 90 |
| La Liga 38 | 5/14/16 | A | Granada CF (16.) | 0:3 | 90 |
| CDR final | 5/22/16 | H | Sevilla FC | 2:0 AET | 120 |
| La Liga 2 | 8/28/16 | A | Athletic Bilbao (14.) | 0:1 | 90 |
| UCL group C | 9/13/16 | H | Celtic | 7:0 | 90 |
| La Liga 4 | 9/17/16 | A | CD Leganés (11.) | 1:5 | 80 |
| Total | 564 |
One difference between this streak and their purported record is in this streak, Barcelona played matches without Ter Stegen in between the matches he played. For example, he played rounds 2 and 4 of the league, but not rounds 1 and 3. However, from his perspective, it is an uninterrupted run of games for Barcelona. Also, they’re still counting their streak despite the fact that it was interrupted by an international break, so it’s not even as if all the games were consecutive period.
In any case, personal unbeaten streaks, in my opinion, remain on hold / “alive” even when you’re not playing. They resume once you go back in. If you count it differently, you should specify.
Thanks to Arjun Pradeep and Renato Gonçalves for help checking the stats