The fifth round of the Champions League is in the bag, just three rounds remaining before we discover who is through to the last 16, who is going to endure a nervy playoff battle and whose European season is over. This week brought thrilling results: Manchester City blowing a three-goal lead against Feyenoord, Bayer Leverkusen and Arsenal running up the goals in impressive fashion and missed penalties by superstars at both ends in Liverpool’s win over Real Madrid.
Here’s our pick of the best players, lining up with a back three to celebrate the impressive results from Leverkusen and Inter:
GK: Dmytro Riznyk, Shakhtar Donetsk
Not exactly a vintage week for the men between the sticks, was it? Thibaut Courtois was among the few Real Madrid players who could leave Anfield with his head held high but he might feel he could have done better for Liverpool’s opener. Given that no one was both faultless and busy, we’re going to have to go for a compromise candidate. An exceptional 87 minutes from Riznyk weren’t undone just because his cleansheet and then Shakhtar’s points were snatched away by Malik Tillman (more on whom later) and Ricardo Pepi.
I mean, what do you even want him to do about those goals, which followed 10 saves, the best of which were quite excellent? Even that first goal he conceded was millimeters from an outstanding save, Riznyk hurling himself low to his left to meet Tillman’s impudent low free kick. The second? There could have been two goalkeepers between the sticks and they weren’t getting close. The third seemed specifically designed to ruin Rizynk’s night, a PSV leg doing just enough to divert the ball in totally the opposite direction, leaving Pepi with a tap in.
Sometimes goalkeepers do their bit and still end up having a bad night. In such circumstances, it’s worth highlighting what they did right.
CB: Conor Bradley, Liverpool
Yes, we’re immediately playing fast and loose with the formation. Look, there are a load of strikers and attacking midfielders I’ve got try to get in. Conor, you’re just going to have to work it out. Given how successfully you took to dealing with the best forward on the planet (if we can still call Kylian Mbappe that), I’m pretty confident this won’t be beyond you. After all, what a reducer that was in the second half.
And the assist. The assist! Weighted with precision, one pass took two players out of the game while ensuring that Alexis Mac Allister could take the ball in stride and squirm a shot away before Raul Asensio got across to cover. There are few better compliments you can offer in this context than to say it was an assist Trent Alexander-Arnold would have been proud of.
CB: Stefan De Vrij, Inter
Well, you have to have someone from Inter in your backline. The Italian giants look like they have that most vital component of Champions League contenders, an elite-level defense. A record of five cleansheets from as many games would be remarkable whoever the opponents were but the 2023 finalists have already held out against Manchester City, Arsenal and an RB Leipzig side who desperately needed anything to save their European season. Inter held them utterly at arm’s length, just seven shots worth a combined 0.15 xG.
Such defensive excellence is the sort of collective effort that rarely fits comfortably into a pick your best players format. So, sorry Alessandro Bastoni and Hakan Calhanoglu, but it’s De Vrij for me — his clearances and interceptions snuffing out what pressure RB Leipzig were able to apply on the Inter goal.
CB: David Hancko, Feyenoord
A week where so many teams conceded three-plus goals doesn’t make it easy to pick out the best defenders. Either your team were so dominant that you didn’t have to do a lot of defending or, well, you conceded half a dozen goals. Then again, if anyone can be forgiven for conceding a few goals it’s the Feyenoord defense, in which Hancko and his teammates got a clearing boot on a fair few of the many crosses and cutbacks that Manchester City hurled into their area. Following up 88 of the most demanding minutes you can ask of a defender with a lung-busting run into the penalty area to flick home the equalizer was all the more impressive.
RM: Marcos Llorente, Atletico Madrid
Arguably the best individual performer across this week, Llorente’s dominance from right back ensured that Atletico Madrid were able to run up an almighty score in Prague, something that could count for a great deal when the final places in the top eight are handed out. Most immediately apparent were the two assists, Llorente busting a gut to be in place to one-two with Julian Alvarez before slipping the ball to Angel Correa towards the death, giving the Argentine plenty of work to do it must be said.
Atletico were dominant enough that they didn’t need Llorente to excel defensively but he did that too with four tackles won from four, six of seven successful duels and eight ball recoveries. Not too shabby at all for a player making his first start since late September.
CM: Malik Tillman, PSV Eindhoven
Pick your favorite: the audacious free kick that just had enough to kickstart the comeback or the absolute howitzer that seemed to swing one way and then the other to draw PSV level in the most thrilling game of a barnburner of a match week? For pure vision, this author’s preference is for the opener, not least because a bit of guile was absolutely going to be required to defeat a goalkeeper as obdurate as Shakhtar’s.
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CM: Rade Krunic, Crvena zvezda
Even those who thought Crvena zvezda were a fair wedge better than their record didn’t see that coming! Then again, you look at their side and it’s hard to see why they shouldn’t be able to at least give it a go against a side like Stuttgart. On an evening where everyone in red excelled, it was hard to pick a star man but UEFA’s technical panel opted for former Milan man Rade Krunic.
“He made a significant impact, showcasing a clinical left-foot finish to give his side the lead, plus creating the fourth goal with a decisive line-breaking pass on the counterattack,” they said. Who are we to argue?
LM: Alejandro Grimaldo, Bayer Leverkusen
Look, we could really just hive off a spot in this XI for the remainder of this season and put Florian Wirtz’s name on it. The figurehead of Bayer Leverkusen was his customarily excellent self in the 5-0 drubbing of Salzburg. You could, however, say the same about Grimaldo, as joyous a watch as there has been in European football over the last 15 or so months. Let him drift off his flank for even an instant and he is going to take a shot. By the final whistle at the BayArena, he’d taken seven of them, the pick of them a delicately lofted free-kick that Alexander Schlager swiftly concluded wasn’t even worth diving for.
With half an hour played, Grimaldo had added an assist too, a smart pass inside to Wirtz that speaks to the connection these two have on the Leverkusen left. The latter is often the one who gets the most glowing praise from their collective efforts. There’s no harm shining the light on Grimaldo for once.
CAM: Martin Odegaard, Arsenal
If Arsenal didn’t have Odegaard, could they have really hoped to eviscerate a much-heralded Sporting opponent in anything like the manner they just did? Whether or not the Norwegian is his side’s very best player is the sort of fruitless debate Gooners can savor but after his last two games, Odegaard has the best case to be this team’s ceiling raiser.
“He is an unbelievable player and the day he returned, there was a big smile on my face,” Bukayo Saka said of his captain. A “top three” midfielder in Europe, according to William Saliba. They know how good Odegaard is. Sporting just found out in the cruelest of fashions.
CAM: Ngal’ayel Mukau, Lille
There are worse times to deliver your first senior goal than a Champions League tie where your side can all but guarantee a spot in the knockout playoffs (at least). Not bad timing for the second goal either. Both spoke to qualities it tends to take much more than 20 years to develop, lurking in the right spots for a cutback while being prepared to gamble that mistakes and rebounds would fall his way.
ST: Mateo Retegui, Atalanta
What is it about Gian Piero Gasperini and strikers? The likes of Duvan Zapata, Luis Muriel and Ademola Lookman have hardly looked like superstars before arriving at Atalanta, nor did Retegui when he departed Genoa with nine goals to his name in all competitions last season. Already this term he has 14 in 19 games, two of which came as Young Boys were brushed aside at the Wankdorf Stadium.
Retegui’s first goal was that of an outstanding center forward, timing his run perfectly to break the Young Boys offside trap and whipping a ferocious finish across goal, the ball bending elegantly into the side-netting. The second was no less impressive, a great first touch off Charles De Ketelaere before the 25-year-old took a breath and rolled it home. This is the output of a high-grade striker. Was Retegui that before Gasperini got his hands on him?
