Barca's Famous Trio Star in Champions League Team of the Week

The Champions League is back. The famous music has returned, with Europe’s top performers plying their trade once more the club football’s grand stage. There was mixed success for the British teams from gameweek one. Manchester City and Leicester secured comfortable wins, Arsenal somehow managed to hold PSG to a 1-1 draw, but Tottenham and Celtic fell to defeats to Monaco and Barcelona, respectively. 

With that in mind, it’s little shock Barcelona’s famous threesome of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar all feature in WhoScored’s first Champions League Team of the Week of the season. MSN were in fine form to put the Celtic defence to the sword as the Spanish champions romped to a 7-0 win over their Scottish counterparts. Bhoys boss Brendan Rodgers insists that Moussa Dembele’s penalty miss when Luis Enrique’s side were 1-0 up was the turning point in the encounter, but the fact of the matter is, Barcelona were far too strong for Celtic on the night, as the final score suggests. 

While Messi, Suarez and Neymar all impressed, the latter was named WhoScored’s man of the match with a perfect 10. Having struggled to make an impact in the 2-1 home defeat to Alaves last weekend, Neymar tore Celtic to shreds, registering four assists in a Champions League match for the first time since Zlatan Ibrahmovic managed the feat in PSG’s 4-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb back in 2012. 

Neymar was also on the score sheet having hit the back of the net minutes after the interval, played seven key passes and completed six dribbles on the night; only Gelson Martins (7) completed more dribbles in the first round of fixtures in Europe’s elite competition. Lionel Messi helped himself to a hat-trick against Celtic, while Luis Suarez netted twice as the pair registered one assist apiece to compound a miserable trip to Camp Nou for the Scottish champions. 

Indeed, the trio have now scored 266 competitive goals between them since Suarez moved to Barcelona in 2014, and that came with the Uruguayan’s suspension. Borussia Dortmund also have a trio of players included in the team of the week, with Lukasz Piszczek, Sokratis and Raphael Guerreiro all featuring. The latter was the star man for Dortmund, who romped to a 6-0 win at Legia Warszawa, which was all the more impressive given the Portugal international played in a less familiar central midfield role alongside Mario Gotze. 

Sokratis netted Dortmund’s second on the night and was relatively unchallenged by a disappointing Legia attack having limited the Polish side to just three shots on target, while Piszczek was a sold performer at right-back in the victory. The Premier League is not without its representatives in this XI, with City pair Aleksandar Kolarov and Sergio Aguero in the team. Kolarov provided the assist for Aguero’s opening goal and ensured Claudio Bravo kept his first clean for City having made three tackles, three interceptions and seven clearances against Gladbach. 

Aguero, along with Messi, also scored a hat trick in the first gameweek of the Champions League group stages this season and could well have grabbed an assist having played three key passes during his 83 minutes on the pitch. After their 5-0 trouncing of FC Rostov, Bayern are also represented in the side through Joshua Kimmich, having netted a second half brace against the Russian side. The youngster was heavily involved for the German side having had more touches (135) than any other player in gameweek one of the 2016/17 Champions League and ultimately attempted the most passes (110). 

Dusko Tosic played a vital role at the heart of the Besiktas defence on Tuesday night to ensure the Turkish champions secured a positive result in Portugal. The 31-year-old blocked two shots at the Estadio da Luz, while six tackles, one interception and nine clearances helped the Black Eagles to a share of the spoils. Highly rated goalkeeper Jan Oblak rounds off the XI following his clean sheet attaining display in Eindhoven on Tuesday night. 

The Slovenia star saved an Andres Guardado penalty, moments before the interval. The 23-year-old made a total of four saves and one cross claim to churn out a solid display between the sticks as Atletico Madrid got their Champions League campaign off to a winning start.

Who impressed you most in the first round of Champions League fixtures? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below