Champions League Team of the Week: Aston Villa's Emiliano Martinez, Leverkusen's Jonathan Tah come up big

Here are the top players from Matchday 2 plus a bonus player who delivered the win for Aston Villa

A quarter of the way through the Champions League, this week's fixtures provided spills, upsets and goals aplenty. Matchday 2 being over means we are a quarter of the way through the league phase with so much left to play for, but here are the players who stood out the most across Europe this midweek:

GK: Emiliano Martinez, Aston Villa

Others might have made a greater volume of saves -- Peter Vindahl's name is worth mentioning at this juncture -- but the seven "the world's No.1" delivered against Bayern Munich were of the most consistently excellent standard of any goalkeeper this week. His sprawling boot to deny Harry Kane looked like being the pick of the bunch until added time, where Emiliano Martinez made himself implausibly big to deny Serge Gnabry at close range. Is there a better goalkeeper to have between your sticks on the biggest nights?

RB: Jurrien Timber, Arsenal

He might have only played 45 minutes but the guy has spent most of the last year nursing a major knee injury. He's allowed to clock off early when the job is already done. Anyway, in those three-quarters of an hour, Jurrien Timber may well have left scars on Bradley Barcola to last a lifetime. Belying his somewhat diminutive stature among Arsenal's giant defensive corps, Timber scrapped and harried for every ball that came his way.

And Arsenal were prepared to send a lot of pressure his way. Their first-half press seemed manufactured to give PSG an out ball to Barcola down the left flank. He'd receive possession with his back to goal, Timber would come smashing in and the ball would be back with a red shirt momentarily. Add into the mix a goal-saving tackle when Barcola (and everyone in the ground) was convinced he'd wriggled away inside the Arsenal penalty area and you have a performance good enough to at least merit questions about whether Ben White can simply waltz back in to his right back berth.

CB: Jonathan Tah, Bayer Leverkusen

No center back in Tuesday's slate of games delivered more expected pass value from their possession than Jonathan Tah, who was obdurate in defense even as he got Bayer Leverkusen on the right path with the ball as they beat AC Milan 1-0. It had been a tough, atypical experience for the champions at the weekend when they struggled to get much possession from Bayern Munich. This was a less backs-to-the-wall clash for the Leverkusen defense but Tah was just as impressive.

"I think you can put the Bayern game aside a bit," said Tah after the Milan win. "It's been a long time since we've played a game where we defended so much. So it wasn't difficult to get back into our normal mode and be more dominant on the ball."

CB: Alexsandro Ribeiro, Lille

There were moments when Lille had to rely on Lucas Chevalier between their posts and the poor finishing of their opponents but their defense still did quite well under the barrage of Madrid pressure in the second half, holding the European champions to just eight shots, six of which came from the 86th minute onwards. No wonder when Lille were so obdurate in clearing everything that came their way. This spot could go to Bafode Diakite, who brazenly got under Antonio Rudiger's skin late on, or even a repurposed Tiago Santos but as the man who won the duels and made the big clearances, Alexsandro Ribeiro edges it. 

LB: Alvaro Fernandez, Benfica

Reader, I've been doing these teams of the week for over a year now. I've got this into a bit of a groove, I know what I'm looking for and tend to find it just about manageable to keep across so many games and their individual performers, even on hectic nights like these. Still, after all this time, I can hardly ever find a left back that satisfies me. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is a position lacking the high-grade talent 

Andrea Cambiaso made a case in one wonderful cross to Dusan Vlahovic before the Juventus Stadium was engulfed in glorious chaos. Ultimately a string of driving runs through midfield -- six progressive carries in the first 65 minutes -- mean that Alvaro Fernandez gets the nod this week.

CM: Jerdy Schouten, PSV

Regular readers will know we don't give out team of the week spots outside the frontline for goals, even for strikes as glorious as Jerdy Schouten's. Actually what stood out about the 27-year-old's performance throughout the 90 minutes was typified in the instant before he let fly, picking the pocket of Geny Catamo in such a spot that a Sporting breakout became a prime spot for PSV to attack.

Schouten did that all game long, making 17 possession recoveries, five tackles, two interceptions. More than anyone, he ensured this game was played where PSV wanted it to be. Had those ahead of him shown Schouten's precision in front of goal, Tuesday would have brought a good win for the Dutch side.

CM: Ilkay Gunodgan, Manchester City

No one at Manchester City is going to get carried away by a 4-0 win in what might be the most lopsided fixture of the league phase. There is, however, a way to get maximum returns from these games with minimal effort. Ilkay Gunodgan did exactly that, bossing the contest with 115 of 123 passes completed, five chances created for his teammates and an early goal to get his side in cruise control. This sort of game says nothing new about whether a 33-year-old who has grown more front-footed as the years have gone by could be the man to plug the Rodri-shaped hole in City's midfield for the hardest games. He might, however, be up to the task in the many, many matches where Pep Guardiola's men are prohibitive favorites.

RW: Karim Adeyemi, Borussia Dortmund

The last year or so has been a curious time for those of us who fell and fell hard for the speedster who set the Austrian Bundesliga ablaze with Salzburg. Borussia Dortmund, and Edin Terzic in particular, saw Karim Adeyemi's electrifying pace and quite understandably concluded that it could be as effectively utilized out of possession as in. Many of the youngster's best moments en route to the Champions League final were the sort that would never make the stats sheet, let alone a highlights reel, as he burst back from the frontline to ensure that a fullback had no chance to overlap or to give his fullback a helping hand.

That defensive work was put to good effect in glamour spots on Tuesday night, two of Adeyemi's hat trick goals coming because he was willing to scrap with Celtic players to claim possession in the sort of spots where he could unleash electrifying shots. The Scottish champions simply had no answer for this blend of pace, industry and ferocious shot power. They might not be the only ones to struggle.

CAM: Ademola Lookman, Atalanta

European nights are certainly bringing the best out Ademola Lookman, provider of Atalanta's opener and scorer of their second in what proved to be a comprehensive win over Shakhtar Donetsk. The goal in particular spoke to how Lookman's game has developed since leaving England. The impudent backheel around the area is the sort of facet of his game that has shone since he was at Charlton, the poacher's instinct that saw him find space to meet Sead Kolasinac's cross is altogether more Bergamo-based.

Lookman might just shade it for this team but it would be unfair to let this section pass by without celebrating the excellence of his attacking midfield partner Lazar Samadzic. Ultimately all that separated these two might just have been output. The Serbian international attempted eight take-ons. He completed eight. Add in six chances created by Samadzic and he can certainly feel hard done by.

LW: Abdallah Sima, Brest

A burgeoning young talent in Ligue 1, already pulling up trees in the biggest continental competition there is? Aaah this guy is going to cost to a pretty penny for some Premier League side, no? Wait... what's that? Brighton? For £6 million? These guys...

ST: Dusan Vlahovic, Juventus

Mehdi Taremi was penciled in for this spot before a brilliant shootout in Turin. For a while you thought Benjamin Sesko might have scored the goal of the round, his foot like a traction engine crushing a phenomenal shot past the first of two Juventus goalkeepers he'd score against. Ultimately, however, Vlahovic bettered him, perhaps twice. The technique to whip the ball into the far post with his left foot for the opener is altogether harder than it looks.

Then came the second goal, a curling strike off the back of excellent work off the ball. Vlahovic won possession back for Juventus on his own, got space for himself and used it wonderfully, bending a shot right out of Peter Gulacsi's reach. The Juventus No.9  may have his off nights but when he is good, he is very, very good.

Bonus Sub: Jhon Duran, Aston Villa

Six-plus shots per 90 in the Premier League and Champions League. Nearly one xG per 90. Over two actual goals per 90. All this is so obviously magnificently unsustainable, right? Right? Or maybe Unai Emery has unearthed the Mariano Rivera of strikers?