Every week we pick 22 of the best performing players in Europe’s top five leagues and, with your help, narrow it down to the best XI.
\nUsing polls on our Instagram stories, we pit players in each position against each other and let you decide who deserves to make the cut.
\nFollow our\u00a0Instagram page\u00a0to get involved.
\nHere’s\u00a0what our\u00a0latest\u00a0European Team of the Week\u00a0looks like:
\nGK:\u00a0Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa)
\nEarned his 12th clean sheet of the season and Villa a point in difficult circumstances. Brighton were well on top and exerted pressure on his goal, but a stunning nine saves kept them at bay.
\nEmiliano Mart\u00ednez. pic.twitter.com\/qiKhAhlaoD— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) February 14, 2021
\nRB:\u00a0Matthew Lowton (Burnley)
\nUndoubtedly his best performances of the season, excelling at both ends of the pitch. Lowton made three tackles, three interceptions and five clearances in a fine defensive display but really caught the eye in attack with\u00a0three key passes and one outstanding volley to score at the end of a superb run.
\nCB:\u00a0Lucas Martinez Quarta\u00a0(Fiorentina)
\nSolid at the back and certainly didn’t deserve to end up on the losing side. Stood out with 11 defensive actions in a 2-1 defeat to Sampdoria, including five interceptions and he even managed to hit the woodwork at the other end.
\nCB:\u00a0Diego Carlos (Sevilla)
\nA rock at the back as Sevilla secured a 1-0 victory at home to Huesca.\u00a0Made a\u00a0staggering 11 clearances in the process and was good on the ball, boasting a success rate of 92.7 per cent.
\nLB:\u00a0Ola Aina (Fulham)
\nPerfect ball across for Josh Maja to score the first goal at the end of a fluid Fulham attack.\u00a0He put in a shift in defence as well.\u00a0No one made more than his five clearances during the 2-0 win over Everton.
\nCM:\u00a0Ilkay Gundogan (Man\u00a0City)
\nThe Premier League’s Player of the Month continued in his rich vein of form. He was excellent in midfield and tormented\u00a0Tottenham with his well-timed runs forward, bagging a brace. He sat Davinson Sanchez down before slotting home for his second goal.
\nThe assist from Ederson ?The control from Gundogan ?The collapse from Sanchez ?\u200d\u2642\ufe0fpic.twitter.com\/SkFQWIHp9I— Goal (@goal) February 13, 2021
\nCM:\u00a0Toni Kroos\u00a0(Real Madrid)
\nDictated the tempo of the game with his exceptional distribution. The German played 107 passes at 94.4-per-cent accuracy. He picked up an assist for the opener and then passed the ball into the back of the net with ease to get himself on the score sheet as well.
\nCM:\u00a0Nabil Fekir (Real Betis)
\nTook his goal superbly, showing great strength to hold off the defender before checking back onto his weaker right foot and dispatching the finish with aplomb. He posed a constant threat with a game-high five shots in the 2-1 win at Villarreal.
\nFW:\u00a0Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
\nVintage Messi, skipping past challenges and scoring from range. He\u00a0hammered in his first in emphatic fashion, but his second was a thing of beauty, curling a sublime effort into the corner from the edge of the box with minimal back-lift. He even bagged an assist, by setting up Trincao.
\n\u26bd Trincao 29'\u26bd Messi 45+1'\u26bd Rioja 57'\u26bd Trincao 74'\u26bd Messi 75'\u26bd Firpo 80'You're going to want to watch these Messi goals ?pic.twitter.com\/YeRn5x775Q— Goal (@goal) February 13, 2021
\nFW:\u00a0Romelu Lukaku (Inter Milan)
\nReached 300 goals for club and country by scoring a brace in a 3-1 win over Lazio that fired Inter to the top of Serie A.\u00a0He made no mistake from\u00a0the spot and then took advantage of some suspect defending for his second. He then showed immense pace and power to assist Lautaro Martinez on the break.
\nFW:\u00a0Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal)
\nScored his first Premier League hat-trick in a 4-2 win over Leeds and even hit the woodwork. He cut in expertly to score the opener, converted a penalty and then headed home Emile Smith-Rowe’s cross.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every week we pick 22 of the best performing players in Europe\u2019s top five leagues and, with your help, narrow it down to the best XI.
\nUsing polls on our Instagram stories, we pit players in each position against each other and let you decide who deserves to make the cut.
\nFollow our\u00a0Instagram page\u00a0to get involved.
\nHere\u2019s\u00a0what our\u00a0latest\u00a0European Team of the Week\u00a0looks like:
\nGK:\u00a0Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa)
\nEarned his 12th clean sheet of the season and Villa a point in difficult circumstances. Brighton were well on top and exerted pressure on his goal, but a stunning nine saves kept them at bay.
\nEmiliano Mart\u00ednez. pic.twitter.com\/qiKhAhlaoD\u2014 Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) February 14, 2021
\nRB:\u00a0Matthew Lowton (Burnley)
\nUndoubtedly his best performances of the season, excelling at both ends of the pitch. Lowton made three tackles, three interceptions and five clearances in a fine defensive display but really caught the eye in attack with\u00a0three key passes and one outstanding volley to score at the end of a superb run.
\nCB:\u00a0Lucas Martinez Quarta\u00a0(Fiorentina)
\nSolid at the back and certainly didn\u2019t deserve to end up on the losing side. Stood out with 11 defensive actions in a 2-1 defeat to Sampdoria, including five interceptions and he even managed to hit the woodwork at the other end.
\nCB:\u00a0Diego Carlos (Sevilla)
\nA rock at the back as Sevilla secured a 1-0 victory at home to Huesca.\u00a0Made a\u00a0staggering 11 clearances in the process and was good on the ball, boasting a success rate of 92.7 per cent.
\nLB:\u00a0Ola Aina (Fulham)
\nPerfect ball across for Josh Maja to score the first goal at the end of a fluid Fulham attack.\u00a0He put in a shift in defence as well.\u00a0No one made more than his five clearances during the 2-0 win over Everton.
\nCM:\u00a0Ilkay Gundogan (Man\u00a0City)
\nThe Premier League\u2019s Player of the Month continued in his rich vein of form. He was excellent in midfield and tormented\u00a0Tottenham with his well-timed runs forward, bagging a brace. He sat Davinson Sanchez down before slotting home for his second goal.
\nThe assist from Ederson ?The control from Gundogan ?The collapse from Sanchez ?\u200d\u2642\ufe0fpic.twitter.com\/SkFQWIHp9I\u2014 Goal (@goal) February 13, 2021
\nCM:\u00a0Toni Kroos\u00a0(Real Madrid)
\nDictated the tempo of the game with his exceptional distribution. The German played 107 passes at 94.4-per-cent accuracy. He picked up an assist for the opener and then passed the ball into the back of the net with ease to get himself on the score sheet as well.
\nCM:\u00a0Nabil Fekir (Real Betis)
\nTook his goal superbly, showing great strength to hold off the defender before checking back onto his weaker right foot and dispatching the finish with aplomb. He posed a constant threat with a game-high five shots in the 2-1 win at Villarreal.
\nFW:\u00a0Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
\nVintage Messi, skipping past challenges and scoring from range. He\u00a0hammered in his first in emphatic fashion, but his second was a thing of beauty, curling a sublime effort into the corner from the edge of the box with minimal back-lift. He even bagged an assist, by setting up Trincao.
\n\u26bd Trincao 29'\u26bd Messi 45+1'\u26bd Rioja 57'\u26bd Trincao 74'\u26bd Messi 75'\u26bd Firpo 80'You're going to want to watch these Messi goals ?pic.twitter.com\/YeRn5x775Q\u2014 Goal (@goal) February 13, 2021
\nFW:\u00a0Romelu Lukaku (Inter Milan)
\nReached 300 goals for club and country by scoring a brace in a 3-1 win over Lazio that fired Inter to the top of Serie A.\u00a0He made no mistake from\u00a0the spot and then took advantage of some suspect defending for his second. He then showed immense pace and power to assist Lautaro Martinez on the break.
\nFW:\u00a0Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal)
\nScored his first Premier League hat-trick in a 4-2 win over Leeds and even hit the woodwork. He cut in expertly to score the opener, converted a penalty and then headed home Emile Smith-Rowe\u2019s cross.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35475"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35477,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35475\/revisions\/35477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}