Yeah just consider that Vieri's prime at Inter was 1999 to 2003.
We played in CL in 1998-99 with Ronaldo (before Vieri)
Then we had Lippi who failed to get us through the groups and lost to Helsinborg...
Our next appearance was in 2002-03 and that's when we started being CL regulars (more CL spots became available and it also was the start of the fall of Fiorentina, Parma, Lazio and other CL spot rivals)
So Vieri played in 2002-3, but missed the semis vs Milan, although Crespo was our main threat.
He played in 2003-4 in a disastrous campaign. And he participated a bit when Adriano was here in 2004-5.
So our best scorer of the 21st century barely played in 3 CL campaigns.
Our second best scorer in Icardi, played in just 1 and had 4 goals in 6 games.
10 years of CL football in a row was shared between an on-off Vieri, an Adriano that had 2 good seasons, a Zlatan that played in just 3 seasons, Milito for 3 seasons, Eto'o for 2 seasons.
Shevchenko played CL football for Milan for 6 years in CL, all of which in his prime. They missed CL only once where we could have played them in the Uefa Cup final but we both lost our semi
There were also more games for a 3-4 year period with the 2nd group stage. So a max of 17 games were available, now we're at 13 games max. We missed out on that era apart from one season in 2002-3.
Juventus on the other hand played in CL in every season from 1995-96 until 2005-6, with the exception of 1999-2000. That's a lot of games for Del Piero and Inzaghi to rack up the goals.
If you also look at Barcelona, you'll also see how it pales. You have Messi with an alien 100+ goals but the next in line is Luis Suarez with 25. In an era where they never missed CL.
Then it's Rivaldo with 22, Neymar with 21, Kluivert with 20, Luis Enrique with 19 and Eto'o has just 16 CL goals with them. And Pique has as many CL goals as Ronaldinho with Barcelona at 14!
Rivaldo 6 seasons in a row in CL.
Kluivert 4 seasons in a row in CL, all with a 2nd group stage.
CL historical numbers are not really comparable, you have to do a comparison according to era and type of tournament we had.
Early 1990s to late 90s, different game.
Late 90s to early 2000s, different game.
Mid 2000s to late 2000s, different game.
Early 2010s to late 2010s, different game.
Now, once again, a different game. The monetary gap is just too vast. It was growing in the previous "phase", but it's just so much easier now for "superteams" to form and just beat everyone with ease, so Haaland and Mbappe can probably surpass the two previous freaks.
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