Well, what a week that was. Three days, 18 games, a boatload of high-grade performers: there really hasn’t been a shortfall of options for our first Champions League team of the week.
We’ll be playing 4-4-2 this time, partly because it’s the formation that lets you get the broadest sweep of options into your XI but mostly because I watched “Mike Bassett: England Manager” last week.
GK: David Raya, Arsenal
A question of volume by Thibaut Courtois against a moment of magnificence from David Raya? It’s the Arsenal man who just shades it, his double save from Mateo Retegui’s penalty was that good. Admittedly the header on the rebound by the Atalanta striker was as tame as you will see in the Champions League this season but Raya still had to scramble halfway across the goal after what was a very good initial save.
The former Brentford man has already had moments of excellence in this competition but this season it seems that scarcely a week goes by without Raya delivering something quite spectacular, usually after half a game where he has been watching William Saliba and Gabriel in cruise control. His name hasn’t really been mentioned among the best goalkeepers in the game but since the turn of the year, he has conceded just 12 goals in 26 games and made a string of excellent saves. Considering all he offers to his side on the ball too, maybe he does have a case to rank among the best in his position.
RB: Angelo Preciado, Sparta Prague
You won’t find many full/wingbacks who end up completing fewer passes than they give away but while Angelo Preciado was hardly the most steadying influence in build-up, he made plenty more direct contributions. Six ball recoveries led his side, as did eight progressive carries and two chances created.
CB: Zeno Debast, Sporting
One of the rules we are quite particular about in the CBS Sports’ Champions League team of the week is don’t pick center backs predominantly for the goals they score. We intend to stick to that. However…
What would you have me do?
CB: Liam Scales, Celtic
Few if any players were as effective at progressing the ball upfield this week as Liam Scales, who added to his 21 progressive passes and 14 passes into the attacking third with an impressive 22 progressive carries. Then there was that quite ferocious header at the near post to spark what was a delirious night at Celtic Park.
The natural inclination is to decry any opponent who could lose 5-1 to Celtic, perennially on the receiving end of that sort of scoreline, in a European game. Slovan Bratislava probably aren’t going to pull up any trees in their next seven Champions League games, it is fair to say, but that does not mean that Celtic did not impress precisely because of the nature of their opposition. With trickier games to come and a path to the playoffs potentially on the horizon, Brendan Rodgers’ side had to be assertive. Scales set the tone for that sort of performance from the base of the team.
LB: Josko Gvardiol, Manchester City
Inter’s defensive work at the Etihad Stadium might have earned praise, some of it deserved given that they kept Erling Haaland quiet for the bulk of the night and had the rest of the Manchester City side quelled until Ilkay Gundogan’s late chances. At the other end, however, the hosts’ defense had to be no less impressive given how Inter ripped through their high press. Crucial to City holding firm was Gvardiol, most notable in one crucial flicked header to safety when a dangerous cross came in his direction. The hosts often found themselves defending man against man when Inter pushed bodies upfield, in such circumstances Gvardiol’s ability to dominate his duels and slow down Marcus Thuram were vital.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” said the Croatia international. “We knew how good they are and we did a great job. We secured a clean sheet, we could have scored goals but it just wasn’t our day.”
RM: Jamie Gittens, Borussia Dortmund
Across the seven team of the weeks to come we will do well to find a player more deserving of a spot in limited game time than Jamie Gittens. When he entered the field at the Jan Breydel Stadium, Borussia Dortmund were on the ropes. Club Brugge had had more chances and better ones too. Twenty-two minutes later the Bundesliga side were cruising to a 3-0 victory, one earned for them by their young winger.
First came outstanding work to make space in the penalty area to get a shot away, the sort that earns a lucky deflection to leave the goalkeeper stranded. He didn’t need any favors the second time around, speeding up and slowing down before finding his way past two defenders and striking into the far corner.
CM: Ryan Gravenberch, Liverpool
As Arne Slot noted, the San Siro has seen plenty of great Dutch midfielders come through their gates and boss the biggest occasions. Well, none of Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids or Ruud Gullit would have sniffed at a performance like Ryan Gravenberch’s. The 22-year-old has been the breakout star of Arne Slot’s early weeks in charge and on Wednesday night he was composure personified as Liverpool overcame a slow start to ease to a 3-1 victory over AC Milan.
His passing was accurate enough from the base of midfield but what Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szboszlai really need around them is someone who can get the ball back. Gravenberch did exactly that with seven interceptions in total.
CM: Teun Koopmeiners, Juventus
Still working his way to full fitness, you wouldn’t have known it in what was an impressively creative performance from Teun Koopmeiners, whose passes in the 3-1 win over PSV Eindhoven led to six chances for his Juventus teammates, 0.64 expected assists an impressive performance in any game. In particular, his work in the left channel, close to Kenan Yildiz, asked deeply uncomfortable questions for the opponents on what was an impressive night for La Vecchia Signora.
LM: Florian Wirtz, Bayer Leverkusen
I’m cheating a smidge to get one of the best players in the sport into this team a little out of position. Sue me. And if that seems a bit of an overstatement, well, you haven’t been watching Florian Wirtz’s start to the new season very carefully. In the Bundesliga, he has been averaging 1.06 non-penalty expected goals + expected assists per 90 minutes, three goals and an assist in his first three games.
Tonight was a sign that Wirtz isn’t one of those whose figures should be subject to a heavy Bundesliga tax. On his Champions League debut, he looked like he was playing his 100th game, striking early and excellently to begin a match where he kept finding space. When Jeremie Frimpong picked him out as precisely as he did, there was only going to be one result.
ST: Harry Kane, Bayern Munich
While it would be unwise to over-index a home game against one of the also-rans in the 36, all Harry Kane and Bayern Munich can do in a game like this is run up the score in drama-free fashion. The brief flurry of goals for Dinamo Zagreb in the second half was a reminder of the sloppiness that kept this team from really competing at home and in Europe last season and the sheer work Kane had to do covering it up.
Looking forward, however, England’s record Champions League scorer can hope for big things. There are a fair few tricky games in the immediate future for Bayern — trips to Aston Villa and Barcelona next up — but even in those games, chances will come to the Bavarians. If Kane converts them with the precision he showed this week then don’t rule out the prospect of him getting close to Cristiano Ronaldo’s single-season scoring record … so long as his teammates can help keep him in the competition.
ST: Antoine Griezmann, Atletico Madrid
Morgan Rogers, this sport was yours until the last minute of the last round of games. There is, however, no denying Antoine Griezmann, still playing as well as he has ever done several months after he was supposed to have packed in the European game to make it big in LA. Thank goodness for Atletico Madrid that he is still there because they needed him to bail them out of some awful defending early on.
Griezmann did so in style. His equalizing volley might have come in all sorts of space but it was hit quite perfectly by the Frenchman, fizzing into the deck to leave Peter Gulacsi without a hope. The Leipzig goalkeeper couldn’t do much in the last minute either when Griezmann made space to deliver a cross, and perfectly stood up to the back post so that Jose Gimenez could meet it on the run and win the game for Atletico. At 33 years of age and with his top-tier career supposedly approaching its end, Griezmann remains a forward who really can do it all.
