Team of the Week from Europe's top 5 leagues: 4 March 2018

Midfield

Messi scored the winner against Atletico Madrid

Right wing: Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona)

The Argentine was the difference between winning and drawing the game for Barcelona against Atletico Madrid. It was his stunning free-kick that broke the deadlock and ultimately resulted in being the sole goal of the match. This was Messi's third set-piece goal in as many games.

Diego Simeone admitted after the match that the brilliance of Messi was the difference between a draw and a loss for his side. Apart from his goal, Messi looked threatening every time he got on the ball and beat defenders at will.

On one occasion, he got past three Atletico defenders in a flash where he had no right to get the better of them. He also made 5 key passes and succeeded in 100% of his dribbles.

Centre midfield: Lassana Diarra (PSG)

Diarra produced a match-winning performance against Troyes

The veteran rolled back the years with a vintage performance in PSG's 2-0 win over Troyes on Saturday. Signed in January, Diarra has proved to be a smart buy for the Parisians and the former Real Madrid man delivered his best performance so far for the French giants.

He was the best player on the field by a mile and set the tempo of the game brilliantly. He made 92 successful passes against Troyes which included 2 key ones. Diarra had 8 successful dribbles on the night and won a staggering 18 duels in the centre of the park. PSG never gave Troyes any chance to mount a comeback and it was all down to the amazing work done by Diarra in midfield.

Centre midfield: Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City)

Gundogan completed 167 of his 174 passes

In City's 1-0 win over Chelsea last night, Gundogan created history by becoming the player with the highest passes completed in a Premier League game since Opta started keeping track of the numbers. Staggeringly, the German midfielder succeeded in 167 of his 174 passes against the Blues.

Chelsea's negative tactics may have made the task easy for Gundogan but overall, he looked the liveliest of the midfielders on the field and made his case to start regularly for City. It was Gundogan who decided to control the pace of the game and in doing so, delivered a statistically brilliant showing.

Left wing: Son Heung-Min (Tottenham Hotspur)

Son was on fire against Huddersfield Town

With a brace against Huddersfield Town, Son Heung-Min reached double figures in the league for the second time running. The South Korean is an underrated member of this Spurs unit who was the best player on the field against the Terriers.

He took up nice positions and emerged victorious in each of his individual duels. His late runs into the box were threatening and so was his link-up play with Kane and Alli. Despite Moura waiting in the wings for a chance, performances like this have only enhanced Son's importance to this Tottenham setup.