UEFA Champions League: Top 5 Players to Watch in Matchday 3
In the half-month layoff between each match in the UEFA Champions League group stage, form changes drastically. Players like Barcelona's Neymar, who is just scoring goals for fun, and Liverpool's Raheem Sterling, who is acting as a bandage for a struggling club, introduce new storylines to this uniquely sporadic competition.
Those kinds of compelling narratives are the basis for these rankings.
Between now and the last round of group stage matches, players and teams have had domestic league ties, cup competitions and an international break to fall into or out of form.
And at this point in the competition, most teams can't afford the latter.
Matchday 3, which will take place Tuesday and Wednesday, is one of the most critical junctures in its own right, because its conclusion will mark the halfway point in the group stage.
Based on how well they're playing as of late, the changing fortunes of their teams and plot points new to this round of matches, these are the top five players to keep an eye on during the two days of Champions League action.
Honorable Mention
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Philipp Lahm, Bayern Munich
At 30 years old, Philipp Lahm has been around the block a few times. But the old dog proved he was capable of learning a new trick when Pep Guardolia took over as the manager of the Bavarian club and moved the captain from fullback to midfield.
In Bayern's latest 6-0 throttling of Werder Bremen, Lahm found the net twice. That kind of production can't be expected against a stingy Roma back line, but with his running partner on the right side of the field, defender David Alaba, questionable for the match, Lahm will need to maintain his good form Tuesday.
Mario Balotelli, Liverpool
In Sunday's win over Queens Park Rangers, another game went by without a Mario Balotelli goal for the Reds. He's played six Premier League matches this season and hasn't managed to notch one score.
On the bright side, the Italian has found the net for Liverpool during this competition in a 2-1 win over Ludogorets. Perhaps the most criticized footballer in the world at present, a goal in this week's clash with Real Madrid could do well to silence some of that noise.
Jasper Cillessen, Ajax
The 25-year-old Cillessen first poked his head into the consciousness of the soccer-viewing world this summer when he won the starting 'keeper job for the Netherlands during the World Cup.
Ajax has drawn both of their other group stage matches and what seems like every domestic game they've played in, but a draw against Barcelona would most likely be taken as a moral victory by the Dutch club.
Cillessen picked up a yellow card in Ajax's last match, so he could be stepping a little more gingerly when he faces the combination of Neymar and Lionel Messi Tuesday. At least he doesn't have to worry about Luis Suarez for now.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid
It would be grossly irresponsible to suggest anything other than watching Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese international is off to a record start in La Liga, netting 15 goals in eight rounds, seven of which he played in. Real Madrid travels to Liverpool Wednesday for perhaps the biggest game of Matchday 3.
5. Ilkay Gundogan, Borussia Dortmund
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Ever since Borussia Dortmund's 3-0 dispatching of Anderlecht in their last Champions League outing, the German club has been atrocious.
Dortmund has sunk to 14th in the Bundesliga table behind consecutive defeats to Hamburg and at Koln. But BVB still sits atop Group D and now has the services of Ilkay Gundogan for the first time in this Champions League campaign.
The creative midfielder was sidelined for the last 15 months with injury, but he made his return for Dortmund in Saturday's 2-1 loss at Koln.
Gundogan, who seems to have lost the spare tire he wore on his gut during his injury spell, is part of a full complement of BVB stars who will be available for first-team selection Wednesday against Galatasaray.
But out of the injured trio that included him, Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Gundogan has missed by far the most time.
The German international played 90 minutes before being subbed off in his first match back from the long layoff, so he looks fit enough to contribute in a major way.
If Dortmund is to separate its Bundesliga woes from its Champions League success, Gundogan should be a vital contributor against a Galatasaray outfit that finds itself at the bottom of Group D.
4. Paul Pogba, Juventus
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Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba is one of the biggest names in the Italian Serie A.
He's 21 years old.
And he'll be tasked with leading Juve out of an extremely tight Group A.
After two matches, each team in the quartet has three points, including the likes of upstarts Malmo and Olympiakos—the latter of which is Juventus' opponent Wednesday.
The Bianconeri saw its 13-match league winning streak come to a head-scratching end Saturday in a 1-1 draw with Sassuolo, a contest the side could have lost if not for a screamer of an equalizer from Pogba.
Striker Carlos Tevez has two champions league goals in as many games and six goals so far in Serie A, so if the chances are there, he'll convert them.
But Stephan Lichtsteiner and Patrice Evra have done little to advance the attack.
Pogba has proven that no stage is too big for him—see his 2014 World Cup performance that won the Frenchman the Best Young Player award this summer. And it could be up to him to either feed Tevez up top or bang in one of his patented lasers from at or behind the edge of the box.
3. Neymar, Barcelona
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Neymar is on a flat-out goalscoring tear.
The Brazilian has netted a team-high eight goals in seven La Liga games this season for Barcelona, even more than footballing god and teammate Lionel Messi's seven.
To put that in perspective, Neymar scored just nine times over the course of Barcelona's entire domestic league campaign last year.
The 2013/14 season was, by all accounts, a disappointing one for Neymar with his new Catalan club, but he's finally begun to prove why his services cost Barcelona €57 million.
He's also managed to maintain his consistent dominance with the Brazil national team, scoring four goals against Japan and looking oblivious to the fact that people were actually trying to stop him.
In Barcelona's last Champions League outing, the side was stunned by an Ibrahimovic-less PSG squad in a 3-2 defeat. The Catalan giants face Ajax on Tuesday, looking to tighten its grip on a top-two spot in Group F.
This could also be the last chance Neymar gets to flex his goalscoring muscles for a while, with the world's hungriest footballer, Luis Suarez, free from his four-month ban on Oct. 25. Barcelona's front line is set to get very crowded, very soon, so look for Neymar to attack early and often against Ajax.
2. Emiliano Martinez, Arsenal
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Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.
For the second time in as many Champions League tournaments, the Polish international earned a straight red card, this time for decking Galatasaray's Burak Yılmaz on the way to clean up a loose ball.
The Gunners managed to hang on for a 4-1 win in Szczesny's absence in that Matchday 2 incident, sending summer transfer and Colombian World Cup standout David Ospina between the posts.
That's not an option this time around.
While Szczesny sits with his red-card suspension, Ospina will be sidelined as well with an injury.
A 22-year-old rookie, Emiliano Martinez will be tasked with preserving Arsenal's slim hold of second place in Group D when the Gunners travel to Belgium. His baptism by fire will be even hotter considering his back line will be without the services of Laurent Koscielny and Mathieu Debuchy for the match, as both sit with injuries.
Arsenal's depleted goalkeeping situation comes at a better time than if Group D leaders Borussia Dortmund were its opponents Wednesday, but Anderlecht won't be a vacation either.
The Gunners' competition sits atop the Belgium Pro League table behind 19 total goals this season.
With one of the most rabid fanbases in Europe scrutinizing his every move, Martinez will be thrown into arguably the biggest tournament in soccer with no prior credentials.
1. Raheem Sterling, Liverpool
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It's been a whirlwind last few weeks for Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling, and it will reach its zenith Wednesday when Anfield hosts the biggest game of Champions League Matchday 3.
During the recent international break, the 19-year-old removed himself from England's lineup for a European Championship qualifying match against Estonia, citing tiredness as the reason.
There was a segment of the population that didn't like that very much.
But after his brief rest, the youngster won back the Liverpool fanbase, at least, after playing the full 90 against QPR on Sunday, in an early candidate for the most exciting finish of the year in the Premier League.
It won't show up on the score sheet as a tally for Sterling, but the winning own goal knocked in by QPR's Steven Caulker was forced by the young winger.
But unlike Arsenal and Barcelona, the clubs of the No. 2 and No. 3 players on this list, Liverpool is fighting just to stay in the conversation after two Champions League games.
The Reds sit third in Group B behind a gritty 2-1 win over Ludogorets and a puzzling 1-0 defeat to Basel. And the first place to point the finger for the team's deficiencies is its anemic attack.
Sterling is Liverpool's leading scorer in the Premier League with just three goals. Daniel Sturridge, who scored 21 league goals a year ago, has found the net just once after suffering from injury. Mario Balotelli has managed not to score at all.
By struggling so mightily against the weaker opponents in its group, the players haven't given themselves the wiggle room to lie down against Real Madrid Wednesday. It took two own goals to propel Liverpool past QPR, so an offensive showcase isn't likely for the Anfield club.
It will be up to Sterling to prove why he's one of the most highly-touted young players on the planet as he looks to help the Reds stay alive in the hunt for a spot in the last 16.
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