Two Premier League stars formed the worst Champions League team of the week after a difficult few days for English clubs in the competition.
The new format of Europe’s elite club competition is beginning to take shape: all 36 teams have played four of their eight matches.
Teams that finish in the top eight automatically qualify for the round of 16, with those ninth to 24th competing in an extra play-off round, meaning the table battle is starting to heat up.
Aston Villa, Man City and Arsenal suffered defeats, with Liverpool the only Premier League team to claim a victory, dispatching Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen 4-0.
City suffered a particularly embarrassing defeat when they were thrashed 4-1 by Sporting Lisbon in Ruben Amorim’s final home game in charge of the Portuguese team before his move to Man United.
Two Premier League stars made SofaScore’s worst Champions League team of the week
Man City, Arsenal and Aston Villa were defeated, with Liverpool being the only English team to win.
City were defeated 4-1 by Sporting Lisbon in Rubén Amorim’s last game in charge of the club.
Sporting ran rampant in the second half, but City had the chance to come back from 3-2 down, but Erling Haaland crashed his penalty against the crossbar.
And the Norwegian found himself in the unfamiliar position of earning a place in SofaScore’s worst XI in the fourth week of action after accumulating a rating of just 6.1.
He was joined in the line-up by Arsenal’s Mikel Merino, the Spaniard guilty of giving away a penalty for handball, before being hooked at half-time against Inter Milan.
The midfielder has had a slow start to his Gunners career and could only manage a 6.1 rating at the San Siro.
Elsewhere, former Man United star Daley Blind lined up at left-back in a 5-3-2 formation for the worst XI, with the Girona defender also earning a 6.1 rating after PSV defeated the LaLiga team 4-0.
He was joined by his teammates David López (6.1) and Arnau Martínez (5.6), the latter suffering the ignominy of expulsion in the second half.
Girona’s trio of defenders was complemented by two from Red Star Belgrade, who were thrashed 5-2 by Barcelona on Wednesday.
Center backs Nasser Djiga (5.5) and Uros Spajic (6.0) were in the team, and Slovan Bratislava goalkeeper Dominik Takac (5.7) also came on after the Slovak team lost 4-1 at home to Dinamo Zagreb.
Erling Haaland leads the line after his missed penalty earned him a 6.1 SofaScore rating
Arsenal’s Mikel Merino was the other Premier League star in the worst eleven after a bad night
Former Manchester United defender Daley Blind also had a place after Girona’s 4-0 defeat to PSV
Joining Merino in midfield was another Red Star player, with Timi Elsnik (6.0), who previously represented Derby County, Swindon, Mansfield and Northampton, lining up alongside Chris-Kevin Nadje (6.0) from Feyenoord, who was expelled.
Arne Slot’s former team suffered a humiliating 3-1 defeat at home to previously scoreless Red Bull Salzburg.
Completing the lineup was Sparta Prague star Jakub Pesek (6.1) and the Czech side suffered a damaging 2-1 defeat against French side Brest, which continues to upset the odds in the Champions League.
Compounding the difficult days for English teams, only one Premier League star made SofaScore’s Champions League best XI of the week.
Following their victory, Liverpool have the sole representative of the Premier League, with Luis Díaz securing a place after an impressive performance against the German team.
The Colombian scored a hat-trick in the second half at Anfield while shining in an unfamiliar role as centre-forward to earn a rating of 9.3.
Díaz has taken his game to new levels with Slot, scoring nine goals and adding two assists in 15 games this season.
He lines up to the left of midfield in what is a 3-5-2 formation for the stars of the competition’s fourth round of action.
Luis Díaz was the only representative of the Premier League after scoring a hat-trick against Liverpool
The Reds impressed at Anfield on Tuesday by beating Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen 4-0.
The Colombian was joined in midfield by Barcelona’s Raphinha (8.8), who has added 22 goal contributions in just 16 games in 2024-25.
Raphinha scored and assisted one and played a key role in Hansi Flick’s team defeating Red Star with ease.
The Brazilian has scored five goals and added two assists in just four Champions League games this season.
Meanwhile, Malik Tillman earned a near-perfect 9.9 rating after adding two assists and scoring a goal in PSV’s 4-0 rout of Girona.
In midfield were Shakhtar Donetsk’s Georgiy Sudakov (8.8), who scored the winning goal over Young Boys, and Nicolas Kuhn (8.8), whose double helped inspire Celtic’s 3-3 victory. 1 over RB Leipzig.
Manchester United target Viktor Gyokeres (9.1) leads the line, and the Sporting Lisbon star added a hat-trick against Man City.
This means that the Swede has scored 23 goals in 17 games so far this season.
Dinamo Zagreb’s Sandro Kulenovic (8.8) joins Gyokeres up front after his brace in the Croatian team’s memorable 4-1 victory over Slovan Bratislava.
Barcelona star Raphinha continued his excellent form by scoring in the win over Red Star Belgrade.
Viktor Gyokeres scored a hat-trick against Manchester City to give Ruben Amorim the perfect sending off
AC Milan and France goalkeeper Mike Maignan (8.9) secured the number one spot after a brilliant performance against Real Madrid.
Paulo Fonseca’s team defeated Los Blancos 3-1 on a memorable night in which Real scored 23 shots.
Ahead of him, Kim Min-jae (8.1), Ryan Flamingo (8.2) and Berat Djimsiti (8.0) make up the bottom three.
All three defenders achieved clean sheets in the victories of Bayern, PSV and Atalanta, respectively.
