With the first round of Champions League knockout stages underway it is time to see who were the 'Players of The Week', who got 'Goal of The Week' and who had the 'Biggest Stinker'.
Players of The Week
As one of the greatest ever players to play football, Lionel Messi lined up to face a PSG side and it was likely that he expected 22-year-old, Kylian Mbappe to be the biggest threat and he was just that, scoring 3 goals in fantastic fashion and consistently causing problems to the weak Barcelona defence. However, going under the radar, it was the Italian central midfielder Marco Verrati who caused so many problems for Barcelona. The tenacious midfielder was pressing high and picking the ball up deep, using his progressive passes to find the front 3 as quickly as possible.
Erling Haaland. What more needs to be said. The Norwegian striker scores goals for fun and carried his impressive form in the Champions League scoring twice against Sevilla. A natural goal scorer, Haaland showed his attacking positioning and finishing abilities to get passed Bono, the Moroccan goalkeeper.
The goal of the week
Porto may have had some fortune with their first goal against Juventus however directly from the kick-off a move filled with seven short, crisp passes found striker Marega whose half volley beat Wojciech Szczesny at the near post. You've had a stinker
In the early stages of the clash between the Italian champions and the Portuguese champions, Uruguayan midfielder, Rodrigo Bentancur's relaxed pass back was under-hit and bundled in by Mehdi Taremi after a deflection from Polish keeper Wojciech Szczesny.
As Porto, Liverpool, Dortmund and PSG head into the second legs with the upper hand there is everything still to play for, with 4 more games going ahead next week!
Commentaires