Champions League Team of the Week – Raphinha, Rice, Kane
Champions League Team of the Week – Raphinha, Rice, Kane Our Champions League Team of the Week following the last-16 second legs, featuring names from Arsenal, Real Madrid and Barcelona. Goalkeeper: Uğurcan Çakır – Galatasaray You know it’s been a busy night as a goalkeeper when your manager praises an ‘amazing game’ despite shipping four goals. Galatasaray were thrashed at Anfield to exit the Champions League, but without Çakır, they could have suffered an all-timer embarrassment.
He made a whopping 11 saves as Liverpool ran riot, including stopping Mohamed Salah’s penalty. Centre-back: Gabriel – Arsenal Should have done better with some goalscoring opportunities, but was solid as ever defensively. The big Brazilian won 100% of his aerial battles (6/6) in a commanding performance, as Arsenal locked out Leverkusen at the Emirates.
Centre-back: Dean Huijsen – Real Madrid One of his better performances of the season. So composed throughout at the Etihad and made some vital first-half interventions to snuff out any Manchester City hopes of a comeback. Centre-back: Goncalo Inacio – Sporting CP A top display from the defender, who led Sporting’s stirring comeback against Bodo/Glimt.
Inacio scored the first goal of the night with a great header and helped keep the hosts on the front foot with his raking distribution. Inacio completed 12/17 long balls forward. Midfield: Declan Rice – Arsenal Declan Rice has started to come alive in the Champions League’s knockout rounds.
The Arsenal midfielder made it three consecutive man-of-the-match awards in the club’s most recent knockout stage wins after a standout display against Bayer Leverkusen. A characteristic rampaging forward was capped with the second goal. Midfield: Archie Gray – Tottenham Hotspur Marcos Llorente made a point of coming over to shake Archie Gray’s hand as he was substituted against Atletico Madrid and the Spaniard was not the only one mightily impressed.