Top 5 Champions League players of the group stage

With the group stage of the UEFA Champions League now concluded, it’s as good a time as any to have a look at the stand out performers of the competition so far. Here are the top five individuals according to Squawka’s Performance Score rankings.

5. Xavi (Barcelona) – 312 points

The Spaniard is the second Barcelona representative here. As per usual, Xavi is the one who made his side tick, pulling all the strings in central midfield. Only Paris Saint-Germain’s Thiago Motta (632) played more passes than him (630), and only Bayern’s Toni Kroos (95%) boasts a higher pass accuracy of players to have played in as many games as him. Xavi completed 94% of his passes, by the way. He may be getting down in years, but his class on the ball remains fresh as a daisy.

4. Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich) – 322 points

The Frenchman is in the form of his life at the moment, and played a key role in helping his club to an impressive treble last season. So impressive he has been that he is one of the three candidates to win the Ballon d’Or award. Quite likely he won’t win it, given who he is coming up against, but three goals to cap five very impressive performances in this season’s group stage would no doubt serve as further proof as to why he was nominated in the first place.

3. Neymar (Barcelona) – 355 points

He came very close to pipping Ibrahimovic to second, but he had a slight advantage, as he is the only player of those considered so far to have played in all six group stage games. He completed the joint most take-ons in the competition (28), but scored just three goals, all of which came in the 6-1 mauling of Celtic at the Camp Nou. Still, he is playing quite well overall, which would come as a relief to Tata Martino, given star man Lionel Messi is out injured.

2. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Paris Saint-Germain) – 358 points

The big Swede came away second best to Ronaldo when his country went up against Portugal in a bid to win a World Cup place; he has come away second best to the Portuguese in this season’s group stage scoring chart, despite scoring an impressive eight goals, including a breath-taking four-goal haul away to Anderlecht. He has again come away second best to the Portuguese according to Squawka’s Performance Score rating for this season’s competition. Still, take nothing away from him, as he is a truly wonderful talent.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) – 471 points

The Portuguese has had an outstanding 2013 and is being touted as the latest winner of the Ballon d’Or award as a result. Should he win it, the fact that he is the competition’s leading scorer so far with a record-breaking nine goals in the group stage, despite missing one game, will certainly add a bit more gloss to the victory. Simply brilliant.