Champions League: Hits of Game Week 2


Champions League: Hits of Game Week 2
Marcus Thuram scored a brace against 13 times winner Real Madrid

In a week that saw all four English clubs score 14 goals and concede 0, Real Madrid having to come from behind to get a point against Borussia Monchengladbach and a Ronaldo-less Juventus being beaten by Barcelona, this week had it all. Here we rank three of the most standout performances, in no order whatsoever.

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Marcus Rashford

Feeding children by day, scoring goals by night has become his catch phrase now. Over the summer, Rashford campaigned for poverty-struck children to be given free meals by the British Government. For a while it happened and when the government voted against continuing the scheme, small hotels, cafes and pubs all volunteered to provide free meals for the children. Before the RB Leipzig match, Rashford turned his twitter account into a map of places where food was being offered.

Marcus Rashford scored the fastest hat-trick by a substitute

His petition for free food has also crossed 1 million signatures. On the same day Marcus Rashford smashed a second half hat-trick as a substitute. His hat-trick was the fastest scored by a substitute. His hat-trick was the first scored by a Manchester United player since 2014. This was also their substitute hat-trick since 1999, which was scored by current manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer.

His hat-trick helped turn the tide in United’s favour against Leipzig and they made it two wins from two to top the group. What was called as the group of death with PSG and Leipzig in it has become a walk in the park for United.

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Marcus Thuram

The son of former Barcelona player Lillian Thuram, Marcus tormented Real Madrid throughout the match. He scored two goals against them, forcing them to fight hard to draw the match at the dying stage.

He had a passing accuracy of 93% and made 1 key pass along with 1 clearance and won 4 out of his 5 duels. He made 27 passes and completed 2 successful dribbles. Sergio Ramos will have some memories of playing against father and son.

Joao Felix

Joao Felix was the standout performer of the night against RB Salzburg

Bought for a whopping 127 million from Benfica, many feared that he wouldn’t live up to the price tag due to the expectations. Despite his relatively young age, Joao Felix has more than shown that he can live up to the hefty price tag. As much as Diego Simeone’s tactics might not suit an attack minded player like him, he has still made an impact at Atletico Madrid. His assist against Liverpool in the second leg at Anfield opened the floodgates for Atletico’s comeback. Now against RB Salzburg, he showed his class yet again as his brace won the match for Atletico.

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Atletico trailed twice to Salzburg and Marcos Llorente goal meant that they were trailing by a goal. Joao Felix scored a brace and would’ve had a hat-trick, had his overhead kick gone in to the net. He won 13 duels and made 6 ball recoveries and turned in a defensive shift for his team too. This proved that he is living up to his price tag and with time, will become even better than he is.

Also read: 5 talking points from this week’s Champions League