{"id":794,"date":"2026-03-19T10:53:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T10:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/?p=794"},"modified":"2026-03-19T10:53:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T10:53:24","slug":"champions-league-team-of-the-week-xi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/?p=794","title":{"rendered":"Champions League Team of the Week XI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n      <!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>We are now down to the quarter-finals of the 2025\/26 Champions League. Only eight teams remain \u2013 but who were this week\u2019s top individual performers?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We saw some big wins for PSG, Arsenal and Liverpool, while the likes of Manchester City, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur all crashed out of the competition. How made it into our team of the week?<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">GK: Matvey Safonov<\/h2>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0fab81ce12e48a0794275e1d82449fb1\" image-id=\"1074455520\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support --><\/p>\n<p>Chelsea may have suffered an humilating defeat at the hands of PSG on wednesday night, but it wasn\u2019t for lack of trying. The Blues rattled off plenty of shots on goal \u2013 Matvei Safonov had to remain alert throughout. <\/p>\n<p>Safonov made a total of nine saves to keep Chelsea at bay. Having temporarily deposed Lucas Chevalier, performances like this could see him become PSG\u2019s permanent number one. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">RB: Ashraf Hakimi<\/h2>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0fab81ce12e48a0794275e1d82449fb1\" image-id=\"1074451759\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support --><\/p>\n<p>Achraf Hakimi put forth a textbook modern full-back dislay against Chelsea. This shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise \u2013 he is frequently touted as one of the best right-backs in the world for good reason.<\/p>\n<p>Hakimi did his diligent defensive work down the right flank, making a number of tackles and clearances, then found Bradley Barcola for PSG\u2019s second goal of the game in a 3-0 away win.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"PSG CRUSH The Blues! \ud83d\ude33 | Chelsea 0-3 PSG (2-8 AGG) | UEFA Champions League Highlights\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/61SVXG8lTy0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">CB: Gabriel<\/h2>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0fab81ce12e48a0794275e1d82449fb1\" image-id=\"1074472273\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support --><\/p>\n<p>Is Gabriel the best centre-back in the world at the moment? Many point to his strengths from an attacking perspective, but one should not ignore his defensive prowess.<\/p>\n<p>The Brazilian international was practically faultless against Bayer Leverkusen \u2013 he dealt with everything that the former Bundesliga champions could throw at him.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">CB: Goncalo Inacio<\/h2>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0fab81ce12e48a0794275e1d82449fb1\" image-id=\"1074464993\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support --><\/p>\n<p>Goncalo Inacio was crucial towards Sporting CP\u2019s famous comeback on Tuesday night \u2013 not only did he keep a clean sheet, he also scored their first goal of the game.<\/p>\n<p>Inacio is on the cusp of becoming one of the world\u2019s leading defenders. He\u2019ll have a chance to show his stuff at the World Cup for Portugal \u2013 could we see a big-money move in the summer?<\/p>\n<p>      <!-- Article End -->\n    <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are now down to the quarter-finals of the 2025\/26 Champions League. Only eight teams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}