Keylor closing in on Lehmann's shut-out record
A clean sheet today will see him move to within touching distance of the German's Champions League run of 853 minutes without conceding.
Real Madrid keeper Keylor Navas is just 134 minutes from writing his name into the Champions League history books. That's all that separates the 29-year-old from surpassing Jens Lehmann's tournament record of 853 consecutive minutes without letting in a goal, set with Arsenal between February 2005 and September 2006.
Navas' clean sheet in Real's last-16 second-leg victory over AS Roma last month saw him extend his Champions League streak to 720 minutes without conceding, and if Vfl Wolfsburg fail to beat the Costa Rican in tonight's quarter-final opener in Germany, he'll be a mere 44 from becoming the competition's new shut-out king.
However, the statistics show that keeping out the Bundesliga side at the Volkswagen Arena is by no means a given for Navas. Dieter Hecking's men have proved reliable goalscorers on home turf this season, drawing a blank just once - a 2-0 league defeat to Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich - and averaging 1.9 goals a game on their own ground.
Nevertheless, there can no doubting that the former Levante custodian has so far been in his element in the Champions League. He has prevented the opposition from finding the net in each of his eight appearances in Europe's premier club tournament - two last season and six this term - to find himself second in the all-time list of shut-out runs, having overtaken Edwin van der Sar against Roma.
Navas comes into today's last-eight encounter in fantastic form after making two key stops in Saturday's El Clásico win and saving Kevin Gameiro's penalty against Sevilla in Madrid's previous LaLiga fixture. Indeed, in a campaign in which he has proved a stand-out performer for Los Blancos, he has kept out no fewer than three of the four spot-kicks he has faced.