TOTW: Messi magic

Arsenal provide three players while Argentine superstar Lionel Messi earns top billing in our Champions League Team of the Week.

Eurosport

Image credit: TNT Sports

HOW IT WORKS

We've combined Eurosport-Yahoo! viewer ratings - as of 9am the day after the matches - with our experts' ratings to bring you the best XI from the Champions League this week.

TEAM OF THE WEEK

Champions League

Luis Enrique relishes battle with old pal Pep Guardiola

24/04/2015 at 15:12

With an average of 5.5 goals per game scored in the Champions League's opening matches it's no surprise to see that the Team of the Week is stuffed with mouth-watering attacking talent.

And given that Arsenal dished out the biggest thumping, it's also no surprise to see that the Gunners provide three players: Cesc Fabregas, Marouane Chamakh and Andrei Arshavin all earn selection for their part in the 6-0 rout of Sporting Braga.

Fabregas was the pick of the Arsenal trio, but narrowly missed out on Player of the Week honours - an award which goes to Barcelona's Messi, who scored twice in the 5-1 win over Panathinaikos then hit the woodwork twice as he sought a hat-trick. We'll conveniently gloss over the diminutive Argentine's failed penalty effort...

Bayern Munich's Miroslav Klose and Real Madrid's Mesut Ozil complete a front six that looks so good it could be a Manchester City transfer window shopping list - while Bayern's Thomas Mueller and Valencia's Tino Costa were unlucky to be edged out of the side.

In defence, Rangers' efforts to frustrate Manchester United earn a spot for Madjid Bougherra, with his pensioner team-mate David Weir unlucky to be denied a spot by CFR Cluj's Hugo Alcantara.

Alcantara's fellow Cluj defender Ionut Rada is the top-rated defender, the left-back scoring for the Romanian side as they beat Basel 2-1.

Chelsea right-back Branislav Ivanovic completes the defence, while Lyon's Hugo Lloris edged Real Madrid's Iker Casillas for the goalkeeper's gloves.

Team of the Week (4-4-2):

GK: Hugo Lloris (Lyon)

RB: Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea)

CB: Madjid Bougherra (Rangers)

CB: Hugo Alcantara (CFR Cluj)

LB: Ionut Rada (CFR Cluj)

RM: Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - PLAYER OF THE WEEK

CM: Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal)

CM: Mesut Ozil (Real Madrid)

LM: Andrei Arshavin (Arsenal)