Champions League Team of the Week
by Ben Blackmore, 21 February 2008
Take a look at our Team of the Week after the first leg of Champions League second round matches.
Liverpool won, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea all drew, and Celtic narrowly lost, but did any of their players make our XI?
If you agree or disagree with our choices, based on the exclusive player ratings by our journalists watching each match, then let us know using the feedback form at the foot of the page.
GK: Gregory Coupet (LYON)
With 21 goals scored over the eight games played this week, it wasn’t the most vintage week for Champions League goalkeepers. Coupet did stand tall on two occasions for Lyon though, first blocking Wayne Rooney when clean through and then succeeding where many have failed by stopping a Cristiano Ronaldo free-kick.
RB: Francois Clerc (LYON)
Once again we turn to Stade Gerland for our second selection, although inhabitants of Merseyside may argue Steve Finnan deserves the number two jersey. Clerc, like Finnan, provided plenty of threat from the right back role, and proved a constant thorn in the side of Champions League centurion Ryan Giggs.
CB: Philippe Mexes (ROMA)
If Roma’s French sweeper wanted a song to encapsulate his style of play, it would probably be “Smooth Operator”. Faced with Real Madrid’s fearsome attack, Mexes not only limited the opposition to one cleverly-diverted goal from Raul, he also found time to step out of defence and prompt several Roma attacks.
CB: Rio Ferdinand (MAN UTD)
After producing one of the worst performances of his career against Manchester City a few weeks ago, Ferdinand has bounced back with two hugely assured displays. The England man could do little to stop Karim Benzema’s breathtaking opener for Lyon, and he kept the highly-rated youngster in check for the rest of the night.
LB: Christian Chivu (INTER)
It seems strange that an Inter player should get in our team after losing 2-0 at Anfield, but Chivu was a major reason for why Liverpool were shackled for 85 minutes. Slotting inside from left back to a more central role, he did a far better job than Marco Materazzi at keeping Fernando Torres quiet, and he didn’t even have to tug his shirt.
DM: Javier Mascherano (LIVERPOOL)
Quite simply the Argentine’s best performance in a Liverpool shirt. There wasn’t a single blade of grass that went uncovered by Mascherano as he made sure Inter never had possession of the ball for more than about three seconds. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is still nervously looking over his should now.
CM: Ivan Rakitic (SCHALKE)
A name not known to many outside of Germany, Rakitic was a massive reason behind why Schalke have one foot in the quarter finals of the Champions League. Playing the midfield-creator role, the 19-year-old probed, prompted and penetrated the Porto defence with surprising aplomb. The youngster has a wicked shot on him too.
CM: Steven Gerrard (LIVERPOOL)
The arrival of the Champions League knock-out rounds inevitably sees the appearance of Gerrard in the Team of the Week; when doesn’t he produce in the big games? Dirk Kuyt said he had settled for 0-0 with 10 minutes remaining, but ‘settle’ is not a word in Gerrard’s vocabulary, and his late blockbuster will surely see Liverpool into the last eight.
FW: Lionel Messi (BARCELONA)
Arguably the outstanding performer of the week, Barcelona’s magician is simply magic. Blessed with more talent than any other footballer on the planet, Messi produced football that is worthy of Celtic’s phenomenal crowd. A cut-throat one-two and calm finish was good enough, but then he stepped it up another notch to emulate Ferenc Puskas’ drag-back against England, handing Barca the advantage going back to Camp Nou.
FW: Karim Benzema (LYON)
This kid has talent. For those who are not familiar with Benzema yet, he is the young Lyon striker who has been likened to Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane in the same week. He looked more like the Brazilian against United, turning, spinning and shooting in such a tight space that three surrounding defenders could do nothing about it.
FW: Mancini (ROMA)
A tasty forward three I think you would agree. Roma’s brilliant Brazilian would have a queue of clubs lining up for him if he left Stadio Olimpico. With his side 1-0 down to Madrid on Wednesday, Mancini turned the game on its head, first creating David Pizarro’s equaliser and then rounding Iker Casillas for a priceless winner.