After more than two months without her, the Champions League is back and huge. Just before Barça, PSG, Liverpool and Leipzig step onto the most glittering turf in the football world, we “dug” into the Champions League archives and put in order the outstanding players of the season so far. From the occupiers and cooks, through the drippers, to those standing between the beams.
The Outstanding Conqueror
As of this evening, there are four conquerors at the top of the list: Arling Holland, Neymar, Alvaro Murata and Marcus Rashford. Each has six gates. The latter, as is well known, has already lost the opportunity to win the goal-scoring kingdom with the dismissal of Manchester United. Alongside him, Neymar will have to wait until he recovers from the injury that will sideline him tonight (Tuesday) against Barcelona and possibly also from the rematch. Meaning: The remaining two have a chance to escape.
The outstanding cook
In this category, too, the struggle is close. Juventus’ Juan Cuadrado leads with five assists, followed by Kevin de Bruyne from Manchester City with four assists and Killian Ambape (PSG), Alasan Fla (Gladbach) and Thomas Müller (Bayern Munich) top the list with three assists. A.
📊 #UCL stat leaders (remaining players only)
⚽️ Goals: Haaland – 6 *
🅰️ Assists: Cuadrado – 5
🏹 Shots: Messi – 28
🔐 Key Passes: Messi – 16
🤤 Dribbles: Messi – 23
💪 Tackles: Freuler – 19
🧠 Interceptions: Romero – 24
🧤 Saves: New – 27✴️Fewest minutes in event of a tie
– WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) February 16, 2021
Outstanding Dribbler
This category is particularly intriguing, for the simple reason that the top four in the category play in Barcelona or PSG. The first, of course, is Leo Messi who makes 5.8 balls per game. He is followed by Neymar, who makes 4.2 dribbles in every game, but as mentioned, he is injured and may miss a couple of knockout meetings against the Catalans. And the first quartet is closed by Osman Dembele (4) and Killian Ambape (3.4).
Outstanding goalkeeper
In this case, unlike the previous categories, the gaps are larger. Of the active goalkeepers, Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich) leads with 27 stops; Kaylor Navas (PSG) followed with 21 stops; Marco Sportiello (Atalanta) with 18 stops; And Peter Goulachi (Leipzig) and Jan Sommer (Gladbach) close out the top five with 16 stops each.
🤤 Most dribbles per game in the #UCL this season (remaining players only):
1️⃣ Leo Messi – 5.8
2️⃣ Neymar – 4.2 🚑
3️⃣ Ousmane Dembele – 4.0
4️⃣ Kylian Mbappe – 3.4🤩 Barcelona vs PSG is going to be a lot of fun pic.twitter.com/C8cdeT84pL
– WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) February 16, 2021