Champions League Team of the Week: USMNT’s Malik Tillman goes off, Liverpool’s young defender shines |Max Sporty|

The fifth round of the Champions League is in the bag, just three rounds to go before we find out who is through to the last 16, who will endure a nerve-racking play-off battle and whose European season is over. This week brought exciting results: Manchester City blowing a three-goal lead against Feyenoord, Bayer Leverkusen and Arsenal scoring the goals in impressive fashion and missed superstar penalties at both ends in Liverpool’s win against Real Madrid.

Here’s our pick of the best players, lining up with a back three to celebrate Leverkusen and Inter’s impressive results:

GK: Dmytro Riznyk, Shakhtar Donetsk

Not exactly grape week for the men between the sticks, eh? Thibaut Courtois was among the few Real Madrid players to leave Anfield with his head held high, but he may have felt he could have done better for Liverpool’s opener. Given that no one was both blameless and busy, we’ll have to go for a compromise candidate. Riznyk’s exceptional 87 minutes were not undone just because of his clean sheet and then Shakhtar’s points were stolen by Malik Tillman (more on who later) and Ricardo Pepi.

I mean, what do you even want him to do about those goals that followed 10 saves, the best of which were pretty great? Even that first goal he conceded was millimeters from an outstanding save, Riznyk diving low to his left to meet Tillman’s foolhardy low free-kick. The second? There could have been two goalkeepers between the sticks and they didn’t come close. The third seemed specifically designed to ruin Rizynk’s night, a PSV leg doing just enough to deflect the ball in completely the opposite direction, leaving Pepi with a tap in.

Sometimes goalkeepers do their part and still end up having a bad night. In such circumstances, it is worth highlighting what they did right.

CB: Conor Bradley, Liverpool

Yes, we immediately play fast and loose with the formation. Look, there’s a bunch of strikers and attacking midfielders I’ve tried to get in. Conor, you’ll just have to work it out. Given how successfully you’ve dealt with the best forward on the planet (if we can still call that Kylian Mbappe), I’m pretty sure this won’t be beyond you. After all, what a reducer that was in the second half.

And the help. The help! Weighted with precision, one pass took two players out of the game ensuring Alexis Mac Allister was able to take the ball in stride and swing a shot away before Raul Asensio came across to cover. There are few better compliments you can offer in this context than to say it was an assist that Trent Alexander-Arnold would be proud of.

CB: Stefan De Vrij, Inter

Well, you have to have someone from Inter in your back. The Italian giants look like they have that most essential component of Champions League contenders, an elite-level defence. A record of five clean sheets from as many games would be remarkable whoever the opponents were, but the 2023 finalists have already held their own against Manchester City, Arsenal and an RB Leipzig side who desperately needed anything to salvage their European season. Inter kept them at bay, just seven shots worth a combined 0.15 xG.

That kind of defensive excellence is the kind of collective effort that rarely fits comfortably into a selection of your best player format. So, sorry Alessandro Bastoni and Hakan Calhanoglu, but it’s De Vrij for me — his clearances and interceptions put out what kind of pressure RB Leipzig were able to apply on the Inter goal.

CB: David Hancko, Feyenoord

A week where so many teams conceded three-plus goals doesn’t make it easy to pick the best defenders. Either your team was so dominant that you didn’t have to defend much or, well, you conceded half a dozen goals. Then again, if anyone can be forgiven for conceding a few goals, it’s the Feyenoord defence, in which Hancko and his teammates got a clear boot on a fair few of the many crosses and cuts that Manchester City threw into their area. Following 88 of the most demanding minutes you can ask of a defender with a lung-busting run into the penalty area to power home, the equalizer was all the more impressive.

RM: Marcos Llorente, Atletico Madrid

Arguably the best individual player this week, Llorente’s dominance from right-back ensured Atletico Madrid were able to get an almighty scoreline in Prague, something that could count for a lot when the final places in the top eight are handed out. Most immediately seemed the two assists, Llorente broke a gut to be in place for a one-two with Julian Alvarez before sliding the ball to Angel Correa at the death, giving the Argentine a lot of work to do it.

Atletico were dominant enough that they didn’t need Llorente to stand out defensively but he did so too with four tackles won by four, six out of seven successful duels and eight ball recoveries. Not too bad at all for a player making his first start since late September.

CM: Malik Tillman, PSV Eindhoven

Pick your favourite: the audacious free-kick that had just enough to spark the comeback or the absolute bombshell that seemed to swing one way and then the other to pull PSV level in the most exciting barnburner of matchweek? For pure vision, this author’s preference is for the opener, not least because some guile will absolutely be necessary to beat a goalkeeper as stubborn as Shakhtar’s.

CM: Rade Krunic, Red Star

Even those who thought Crvena zvezda were a fair wedge better than their record didn’t see that coming! Then again, you look at their side and it’s hard to see why they shouldn’t be able to at least give it a go against a side like Stuttgart. On an evening where everyone stood out in red, it was difficult to choose a star, but the UEFA technical panel chose former Milan player Rade Krunic.

“He made a significant impact, showing a clinical left-footed finish to give his side the lead, as well as creating the fourth goal with a crucial line-breaking pass on the counter-attack,” they said. Who are we to argue?

LM: Alejandro Grimaldo, Bayer Leverkusen

Look, we could really just carve out a spot in this XI for the rest of this season and put Florian Wirtz’s name on it. The Bayer Leverkusen figurehead was his usual excellent self in the 5-0 thrashing of Salzburg. You could say the same about Grimaldo though, as joyous a watch as there has been in European football over the last 15 or so months. Let him drift off his side even for a moment and he’ll take a shot. Before the final whistle at the BayArena, he took seven of them, the pick of them a delicately lofted free kick that Alexander Schlager quickly concluded wasn’t even worth diving for.

With half an hour played, Grimaldo also added an assist, a smart pass to Wirtz that speaks to the relationship these two have on the Leverkusen left. The latter is often the one who receives the most glowing praise of their collective efforts. There’s no harm in lighting up Grimaldo once.

CAM: Martin Odegaard, Arsenal

If Arsenal didn’t have Odegaard, could they really hope to wipe out a much-heralded Sporting opponent in anything like the way they just did? Whether or not the Norwegian is his side’s best player is the kind of futile debate Gooners can enjoy but after his last two games, Odegaard has the best case to be this team’s ceiling man.

“He is an incredible player and the day he came back there was a big smile on my face,” Bukayo Saka said of his captain. “Top three” midfielder in Europe, according to William Saliba. They know how good Odegaard is. Sporting just found out in the cruelest of fashions.

CAM: Ngal’ayel Mukau, Lille

There are worse times to deliver your first senior goal than the Champions League, where your side can all but guarantee a place in the knockout finals (at least). Not a bad time for the second goal either. Both talked about qualities that tend to take well over 20 years to develop, lurking in the right places for a downgrade while willing to gamble that mistakes and rebounds would fall to him.

ST: Matthew Body, Atalanta

What is it about Gian Piero Gasperini and strikers? Just like Duvan Zapata, Luis Muriel and Ademola Lookman hardly looked like superstars before arriving at Atalanta, neither did Retegui when he left Genoa with nine goals to his name in all competitions last season. Already this term he has 14 in 19 games, two of which came when Young Boys were dumped out at the Wankdorf Stadium.

Retegui’s first goal was that of an outstanding center forward, timing his run perfectly to break the Young Boys offside trap and whip a ferocious finish across goal, the ball bending elegantly into the side netting. The second was no less impressive, a superb first touch from Charles De Ketelaere before the 25-year-old took a breather and rolled it home. This is the output of a high-grade striker. Was Retegui that before Gasperini laid hands on him?