The Champions League’s best performers of matchday three were revealedReal Madrid’s Vinicius Jnr top scoredaongside a surprise Premier League starLISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off!, available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday and Thursday
One surprising Premier League star was handed perfect marks alongside Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr in the Champions League team of the week.
Matchday three producedaother run of dominant results for English sides as Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool, and Aston Villa all secured valuable victories in their bid to reach the competition’s knockout stages.
Elsewhere, Barcelona produced a five-star showing against Harry Kane and Bayern Munich, Celtic secured a hugely surprising point at unbeaten Atalanta, and Madrid came from behind to produce a magical second-half against Borussia Dortmund.
The new Swiss model continues to split opinion with the old group stage format rubbished and the league phase format already creating some memorable European moments.
Unai Emery’s vast cup success is continuing to work wonders as Villa sit shock leaders at the top of the table with a maximum nine points from three games and being yet to concede.
Two Man City players were included in Sofascore’s Champions League team of the week
Aston Villa went top of the Champions League standings after securing a third consecutive win
Vinicius Jnr produced a superstar showing as Real Madrid came from behind to beat Borussia Dortmund 5-2
But, despite producing a convincing 2-0 victory on the road versus Bologna, there is no Villa player in Sofascore’s team of the week with only two Premier League players – both from the same team – making the cut.
There were both some heroic and equally disastrous goalkeeping performances this week – just ask Manuel Neuer – and eight teams managed clean-sheet victories, but it’s a goalkeeper who did concede in a defeat that is picked in goal.
Juventus shot-stopper Mattia Perin (9.4) was on the losing side in a 1-0 home loss against Stuttgart, but things would have been a lot worse if he hadn’t made a series of brilliant saves as the visitors fired on target 10 times.
Girona wingback Miguel Gutierrez (8.7) flanks a backline also containing Dinamo Zagreb’s Stefan Ristovski (8.3), Stuttgart defender Jeff Chabot (8.1) and Monaco centre-back Wilfried Singo (8.6) who scored an absolute rocket strike in a 5-1 win over Crvena Zvezda.
Former Liverpool midfielder Takumi Minamino (8.9) was the star of the show in Monaco’s encounter and features in a three-man team of the week midfield also boasting one Man City star.
Minamino was the top scorer in Monaco’s win as he opened the scoring in the 20th minute before scoring again later in the encounter as the club secured a valuable home victory and is awarded a rating of 8.9.
Raphinha (9.2) slots him alongside him and will perhaps feel slightly hard done by not to have been given a perfect 10 score after enjoying his greatest night in a Barcelona shirt by scoring a beautiful hattrick in the Catalan club’s 4-1 win over Bayern.
But, City’s Portuguese midfielder Matheus Nunes (10) does top score after scoring once from the penalty spot and assisting two other goals as Pep Guardiola’s superstar squad beat Sparta Prague 5-0.
Raphinha (left) scored a hattrick in Barcelona’s dominant win over Bayern Munich, while Erling Haaland (right) scored twice for Man City
Haaland’s first goal saw the Norwegian striker produce a brilliant kung-fu style finish
Vinicius Jr showed why he is favourite to win the Ballon d’Or after scoring an incredible goal after running the length of the pitch
The former Wolves creator provided a pinpoint cross for John Stones to give City a thee-goal footing and followed that up moments later by assisting Erling Haaland for his second. Nunes then sent the goalkeeper the wrong way from the spot to score his first-ever Champions League goal.
Meanwhile, there were plenty of side’s vying to lead the team of the week’s attack after the third round of fixtures saw a combined total of 51 goals scored.
Breel Embolo (8.5) gets the nod on the dream team’s right-wing after scoring deep in added on time at the end of the first-half to give Monaco a comfortable hold in their Champions League clash.
The 27-year-old also provided the assist for Minamino’s second to complete a brilliant evening in the attack where his pace and trickery wrecked havoc.
City striker Haaland (8.5) is named as central striker with the Norwegian scoring two brilliant goals in what is now a customary return in clashes against European minnows such as Sparta.
His first goal was the pick of the bunch – and arguably the tournament so far – as Haaland acrobatically leapt into the air and kung-fu style backheeled the ball past a helpless and scrambling goalkeeper.
City’s Portuguese midfielder Matheus Nunes top scored with a perfect 10 in the team of the week
Former Liverpool forward Takumi Minamino was named man of the match in Monaco’s victory over Crvena Zvezda
The 24-year-old needed to score both goals to keep chase in the Champions League golden boot race with Wednesday’s win moving him onto three goals, just two behind Kane.
Vinicius Jr (10) completes the team of the week after showing he is the still the spotlight star in Madrid – not Kylian Mbappe – scoring an incredible second-half hattrick as the Spanish giants came from two goals down to beat Dortmund 5-2.
A plethora of brilliant finishes was topped by the Brazilian’s marauding whole pitch run that saw him burst down the wing before cutting in and finishing with a curlign effort from outside the box to stun Dortmund and sent the Santiago Bernabeu into raptures.
It’s performances like that making Vinicius Jnr the favourite to be crowned Ballon d’Or winner in Paris next week as Madrid continue their bid to retain the Champions League.