SM
Watford vs. Leeds: 4 hrs 46 mins
Upcoming predictions and previews

Champions League Team of the Week - Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Virgil van Dijk

:Headline: Champions League Team of the Week - Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Virgil van Dijk: ID:353356: from db_amp
Sports Mole selects its star-studded Champions League team of the week from the second legs of the last-16 ties, including Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

All four English clubs made it into the quarter-finals of the Champions League to equal their own competition record and usher in a new era of Premier League dominance on the continent.

Manchester City did so the most emphatically, racking up seven goals in a second-leg destruction of Schalke 04 to go through 10-2 on aggregate and fire a statement to the rest of Europe in the process.

Liverpool were the last of the English clubs to confirm their place in the quarters courtesy of a memorable 3-1 win away to Bayern Munich, and Tottenham Hotspur made it a trio of English wins over German opposition as they completed the job against Borussia Dortmund to seal an impressive 4-0 aggregate win.

Manchester United produced arguably the most stunning result of the Premier League quartet, though, as they pulled off a miraculous comeback against Paris Saint-Germain despite arriving in the French capital without 10 first-team players available.

Indeed, comebacks were the story of the round, with Ajax producing their most famous European night since lifting the trophy in 1995 when they ended Real Madrid's Champions League dominance with a stunning 4-1 victory at the Bernabeu.

Juventus also came from two goals down to progress at the expense of Atletico Madrid courtesy of a starring role from perhaps the competition's greatest ever player, while Porto overturned a first-leg deficit to beat last season's semi-finalists Roma.

Barcelona are now the only club left flying the Spanish flag and defending their recent dominance in the competition courtesy of a comfortable 5-1 second-leg win over Lyon at Camp Nou.

Here, Sports Mole selects its star-studded Champions League team of the week from across the last-16 second legs.



This team was undoubtedly the most difficult to choose yet, given the incredible standard of some of the individual performances over the eight matches, and that leaves the likes of Ajax and Manchester United criminally underrepresented, the latter missing out entirely despite one of their most famous European nights.

There was only one standout choice for the gloves, though, with Hugo Lloris leading the charge for Spurs as they somehow kept Dortmund at bay during a one-sided first half. The World Cup winner made seven saves overall - some of which were world class - as Spurs kept a priceless clean sheet.

Only two other teams in the whole round also kept clean sheets, and one of them provide our right-back. Juve's Joao Cancelo not only helped to prevent Atletico scoring a potentially tie-ending away goal in Turin, but he also weighed in with an assist as the Italian champions completed their turnaround.

Two goalscoring defenders make the cut at centre-back, with Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk once again imperious at the back and weighing in with a crucial second away goal. As important as that towering header was, his ability to keep this season's top Champions League scorer Robert Lewandowski quiet was every bit as influential in their win.

Gerard Pique also got amongst the goals in Barcelona's win over Lyon, with that enough to see him narrowly edge out Chris Smalling and Jan Vertonghen for a place alongside Van Dijk in defence.

It is Manchester City who dominate this XI with four players from their 7-0 win over Schalke, and Oleksandr Zinchenko kicks that quartet off having provided an assist and been a constant threat down the left flank as City cut through Schalke almost at will.

There were a number of standout performances from that match, but Ilkay Gundogan was as influential as anyone with a quarterback-esque display. The German is ensuring that City do not miss the presence of Fernandinho too much and, while he may not have got an assist or a goal himself, he had a big part in play in many of the seven.

Bernardo Silva did help himself to one in that match, as well as registering an assist, and he also ended the game with a 96% pass completion rate - the highest on the pitch.

Not even that was enough to earn him the man of the match award, though; Leroy Sane was the chief tormentor against his former club with a goal and three wonderful assists to fire a reminder to Pep Guardiola as to why he should be starting more often for City.

Incredibly, Sane is one of four players who could be given a perfect 10 rating for their performances, and all of them come in the most attacking positions. This means that the likes of Raheem Sterling, Romelu Lukaku, Sadio Mane, Hakim Ziyech, Sergio Aguero, Luis Suarez and Moussa Marega all miss out despite putting in performances which, in most other weeks, would guarantee them a spot.

Perhaps the most unexpectedly impressive display came from Ajax's Dusan Tadic, who put in one of the great away performances at the Bernabeu to orchestrate the downfall of the defending champions. The former Southampton man scored one and created two more in what he himself described as his best ever game.

If that came as a surprise, there was an air of inevitability about Cristiano Ronaldo stepping up to the biggest occasion for Juventus. That did not make his hat-trick against Atletico any less incredible, though, with the five-time Champions League winner sending another batch of records tumbling with two towering headers and a penalty as he almost single-handedly dragged Juve into the quarters.

The spotlight invariably switches to Lionel Messi when Ronaldo achieves such a feat, but the Barcelona talisman responded in kind by scoring twice and creating two more in the win over Lyon just one day later to earn his place in the team alongside his perennial rival.

amp_article__353356 : Database Data restored...  : 
last updated article - 2019-03-14 14:09:06:
html db last update - 2021-03-07 22:32:21 :

ex - 7200 : read : read cache amp html
Share this article now:
Recommended Next on SM
Premier League Table
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Arsenal28204470244664
2Liverpool28197265263964
3Manchester CityMan City28196363283563
4Aston Villa29175760421856
5Tottenham HotspurSpurs28165759421753
6Manchester UnitedMan Utd28152113939047
7West Ham UnitedWest Ham2912894650-444
8Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton2811985044642
9Wolverhampton WanderersWolves28125114244-241
10Newcastle UnitedNewcastle281241259481140
11Chelsea27116104745239
12Fulham29115134344-138
13Bournemouth2898114152-1135
14Crystal Palace2878133348-1529
15Brentford2975174154-1326
16Everton2887132939-1025
17Luton TownLuton2957174260-1822
18Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest2967163551-1621
19Burnley2945202963-3417
20Sheffield UnitedSheff Utd2835202474-5014
Scroll for more - Tap for full version


Sports Mole provides in-depth previews and predictions for every match from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football.
AL
Sign up for our FREE daily preview newsletter direct to your inbox!

Loading ...

Failed to load data.



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .