Champions League: Neymar picks up Player of the Week accolade
And then there were four! The Champions League is at the second last stage thanks to a successful quarter-final round.
It was an actioned packed, goal heavy round of Champions League football. The last eight saw the most surprising moments of the campaign, with Lyon giving the world of football the biggest upset in this season’s tournament.
Joining Lyon in the semi-finals will be PSG, Bayern Munich, and RB Leipzig. The favourites in the aforementioned group are none other than the 29-times Bundesliga champions, Bayern. They made a second division side out of Barcelona, killing them off in the single-legged knockout game by a hammering score of 8-2.
It became the highest-scoring game of the UCL knockout stages, and long will it stay there at the top. With this in mind and Lyon’s shock 3-1 win over Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, you’d think one of their players would be crowned king of the round.
During these games, it wasn’t even a contest or debated who were the best performers of all the teams participating. Dayot Upamecano was commended by legend, Luis Figo, for his standout performance against Atletico Madrid.
Neymar is the #UCL Player of the Week for the quarter-finals ✨ pic.twitter.com/bkyXEDir77
— B/R Football (@brfootball) August 17, 2020
Thomas Muller’s brilliance was the spark in Bayern’s destruction of Barca. The introduction of super-sub, Moussa Dembélé, was ultimately the final nail in Man City’s coffin. All of these players had a hand in their respective club’s victory, however, it was the world-class Neymar who was named Champions League Player of the Week.
Neymar vs. Atalanta
Goals scored – 0 Goals
Assists – 1 Assist
Total shots – 7 Shots
Shots on target – 2 Shots
Passing accuracy % – 75.9%
Key passes – 4 Key passes
Touches – 113 Touches
Successful dribbles – 15 Dribbles
Nutmegs handed out – 1 Nutmegs handed to Mario Pašalić
A world-class exhibition by Neymar
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A top performance by the Brazilian forward was too much to deny him the accolade. He was undoubtedly the best player on the pitch last week Wednesday in their 2-1 triumph over the last Italian outfit in the competition, Atalanta. He ended their European dream.
Despite not scoring a goal, the forward had a plethora of opportunities to do so, but it was just not meant to be. If this wasn’t the reason for him gathering the trophy, then what was? It was his drive to turn the result around in PSG’s favour.
The French conceded first in the 26th minute of the game and it stayed 1-0 for 64 minutes after that. On the stroke of the final minute of normal time, Neymar provided the ball for Marquinhos to score. It was from that moment on… Neymar helped the Parisians change their Champions League fate.
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The next goal came in the 90+3rd minute of extra time. The double substitution of Kylian Mbappe and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting in the 60th minute and 79th minute, respectively, was a stroke of genius by Thomas Tuchel. But it was the Brazilian’s dribble, then key pass, that setup up Mbappe for an easy assist to Moting.
Credit must be given to Keylor Navas, who kept his side in the clash with multiple saves in both halves of 90 minutes of football. Bring on the next Champions League fixtures!