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Champions League Team of the Week - Thomas Muller, Robert Lewandowski, Neymar

:Headline: Champions League Team of the Week - Thomas Muller, Robert Lewandowski, Neymar: ID:410505: from db_amp
Sports Mole selects its Champions League team of the quarter-finals, including Thomas Muller, Robert Lewandowski and Neymar.

Bayern Munich produced one of the all-time great Champions League performances to dismantle, humble and humiliate fellow European heavyweights Barcelona in the quarter-final of the competition on Friday.

A seismic 8-2 obliteration of the hapless Spaniards confirmed Bayern's place in the semis and their status as favourites to lift the trophy, with the rest of the last four having an unfamiliar feel to them.

Paris Saint-Germain are in the semi-finals for the first time since the mid 1990s courtesy of a dramatic stoppage-time comeback to beat Atalanta BC 2-1, but Manchester City could not follow suit by banishing their own quarter-final hoodoo.

Lyon shocked the Premier League side with a 3-1 victory on Saturday night to set up a semi-final showdown with Bayern, while RB Leipzig make up the final four courtesy of their triumph over Atletico Madrid.

Here, Sports Mole selects its Champions League team of the quarter-finals.



It is no surprise to see Bayern Munich utterly dominate this XI with seven players, but it is also no surprise to see those almost all selected for their attacking contributions after Barca still managed to score twice and threaten on numerous other occasions despite the embarrassing nature of their defeat.

No team managed to keep a clean sheet in the quarter-finals, which leaves Anthony Lopes as the top choice for the gloves courtesy of his six saves against Man City - although he may have gone into the match expecting to be even busier.

In front of him, Dayot Upamecano and Marquinhos make up the centre-back partnership, with the goalscoring latter dropping back from the midfield role he played for PSG against Atalanta.

Upamecano, meanwhile, enhanced his own growing reputation with a commanding performance against Atletico Madrid as he comfortably dealt with Diego Costa and others.

From thereon in it is almost all Bayern Munich, though, with the full-backs having just as big an impact in the final third as many of those further forward.

Joshua Kimmich created Bayern's fourth after a little more than half an hour before getting his own name on the scoresheet shortly past the hour mark, being set up for his goal by Alphonso Davies after the left-back sauntered past Nelson Semedo.

While that Davies assist was perhaps the best example of how easily Bayern beat Barcelona in general, the biggest slap in the face for the Spaniards was Philippe Coutinho coming off the bench to score two and assist one against his parent club, wrapping up the rout in the final five minutes.

The quality of performances elsewhere in attack means that Coutinho must make do with a slightly more reserved role in this XI, acting as deep-lying playmaker alongside Leon Goretzka, who was one of eight different players to chalk up an assist for Bayern.

It is difficult to pick out one single star performer from that Bayern masterclass, but Thomas Muller is at the front of that queue having scored twice and created another to become the player with most Champions League goals against Barcelona.

Serge Gnabry helped himself to a goal and an assist too, while Robert Lewandowski matched that haul - the only surprise being that Bayern's most prolific marksman only got one of the eight goals.

There was competition for places away from Bayern and the likes of Houssem Aouar, Kevin De Bruyne, Moussa Dembele, Maxwel Cornet, Kylian Mbappe and even Raheem Sterling - impressive aside from his glaring and costly miss - all deserve honourable mentions.

However, Neymar is the only attacking player from a team other than Bayern to make the cut, helping to inspire the late comeback by setting up Marquinhos's equaliser - making up for missing a sitter of his own early on.

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