Manchester United passed a truly historic club landmark during our incredible, rollercoaster victory over Lyon on Thursday night.
The Reds had a two-goal lead at half-time, after strikes from Manuel Ugarte and Diogo Dalot, but Corentin Tolisso and Nicolas Tagliafico struck back to take proceedings beyond the 90.
United seemed to have the upper hand when Tolisso was shown a second booking and sent off, but the visitors added further goals through Rayan Cherki and an Alexandre Lacazette penalty.
But, in the second part of extra-time, Ruben Amorim's side achieved one of the all-time great comebacks, as a Bruno Fernandes spot-kick was followed by goals from Kobbie Mainoo and Harry Maguire to send United into the semi-finals.
And Fernandes's goal was the 5,000th scored by the Reds at Old Trafford, since we first moved into our home 115 years ago.
United actually lost our inaugural encounter at the ground, being beaten 4-3 by Liverpool on 19 February 1910. Sandy Turnbull, who had netted to clinch the club’s maiden FA Cup 10 months earlier, was the first home scorer.
A trio of United icons have managed a century of goals at the Theatre of Dreams and fittingly the man who gave the venue that oft-used moniker, Sir Bobby Charlton, is top with 138 strikes.
He just pips former team-mate Denis Law and the club’s all-time leading goal-getter Wayne Rooney to first place on the podium, as they each have 135 goals.
Intriguingly, four men fell just short of the 100 mark - Joe Spence (98), Mark Hughes (97), Dennis Viollet (96) and George Best (95) – while Bruno Fernandes is the highest scoring current member of the squad, with 52.
Marcus Rashford, who is currently on loan with Aston Villa, has 79 Old Trafford goals to his name.
The average number of United goals in M16 across a home season is 49, or roughly two per game, but there have of course been some standout campaigns – for better and for worse.
If anyone offered you the chance to go back in time and become a season-ticket holder for just one year, you could do worse than pick the 2002/03 term.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s men plundered a barely believable 81 goals across an admittedly high number of home games – 33. Ruud van Nistelrooy was responsible for 28 of them on his own, including three hat-tricks, as the Reds scored four or more on nine occasions.
The 1920s and 1930s were fallow decades for United and eight of our 15 lowest-scoring home seasons came during this period.
The nadir arrived in the first term that followed World War I, 1919/20, as the Reds managed just 21 strikes across 22 Old Trafford outings. Despite that, good away form ensured we finished in a relatively comfortable position of 12th in the First Division.
Our record win at Old Trafford is 9-0 – a treat experienced on two separate occasions, although once with no fans in attendance.
Ipswich Town were put to the sword in 1995, with Andy Cole tucking five away on his own. That victory set a new Premier League record which was then repeated almost 26 years later, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
There were seven different Reds scorers when Southampton were battered in early February 2021, with Anthony Martial netting twice and Jan Bednarek also putting into his own net.
Bednarek was later sent off – Saints’ second red of the evening – while Fernandes, Rashford, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Edinson Cavani, Scott McTominay and Dan James were also on target.
We did beat Anderlecht 10-0 in 1956, although that European Cup tie took place at Maine Road – one of 74 ‘home’ games played at Manchester City’s old haunt that naturally do not count towards this tally.
United were tenants on Moss Side between 1946 and 1949, due to bomb damage suffered by Old Trafford during the war, while Goodison Park and Leeds Road (Huddersfield) hosted us in cup ties when both Manchester clubs had been drawn at home.
We also played three continental outings at Maine Road during the 1950s prior to the erection of floodlights at our own ground, and three 1970s home fixtures were held at Arsenal, Plymouth Argyle and Stoke City because of crowd trouble.
Every other United home game since 1910 has taken place at Old Trafford and, now we’ve scored our 5000th goal here, we can hopefully look forward to plenty more, before we leave for a new stadium in the near future.