Yesterday started the second stage of the UEFA Champions League group matches - in their fourth matches, the teams battled against familiar opponents. Goal.com portal journalist Joe Wright presents the symbolic team of the week.
In goal - "Maribor" veteran Jasmin Handanovic. Not only did this player perform excellently throughout all matches, but also at the very end he saved Eden Hazard's penalty from eleven meters, allowing the Slovenian champions to achieve a draw against London's "Chelsea".
The defensive line is led by right back Anthony Vanden Borre, who initiated a spurt for Brussels' "Anderlecht" in London. While the team was trailing 0-3, the Belgian scored twice, and later a goal by Aleksandar Mitrovic resulted in a sensational draw against "Arsenal". The central defensive pair consists of "Barcelona" representative Marc Bartra and Dortmund's "Borussia" player Sokratis Papastathopoulos. The latter stood out with a precise strike and once managed to shake the crossbar when the score was 4-1 in the match against Istanbul's "Galatasaray". The Spaniard from "Barca", on the other hand, scored an assist and contributed significantly to keeping the opponent's goal intact. The best left-back of the week is Marcelo from Madrid's "Real". The Brazilian created an opportunity for Karim Benzema to score the winning goal against "Liverpool" and solidly worked to stop the English side attackers.
Playing in the defensive midfielder position, excelling with two assists, is "Basel" player Fabian Frei. On the right flank is Lisbon's "Sporting" player Nani. The Portuguese scored once and constantly troubled the defense of Gelsenkirchen's "Schalke". This week, the best performance came from Leverkusen's "Bayer" Korean Heung-Min Son, scoring both of the German team's goals and bringing them victory against St. Petersburg's "Zenit".
The "number ten" position immediately belongs to the four-time best player in the world Lionel Messi. The Argentine helped his team "Barcelona" recover after two defeats in Spain and, scoring a double, equaled the record for the most goals in Champions League history set by Raul.
The attacking duo consists of Moscow's "CSKA" sniper Seydou Doumbia and Donetsk's "Shakhtar" leader Luiz Adriano, who makes it into the symbolic eleven for the second time in a row. The representative of the Russian capital club twice overcame the defense resistance of "Manchester City" and gave "CSKA" a chance to fight for a place in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian champions' player, who scored five goals against "BATE" two weeks ago, immediately added a hat-trick. Luiz Adriano now has nine accurate strikes in just four matches.
