Champions League team of the week: Emiliano Martinez from Aston Villa and Jonathan Tah from Leverkusen are really big

After a quarter of the Champions League, this week's games provided plenty of surprises, upsets and goals. The fact that Matchday 2 is over means we're a quarter of the way through the league stage and still have a lot of work to do, but here are the players who stood out the most across Europe this midweek:

Goalkeeper: Emiliano Martinez, Aston Villa

Others might have saved more – Peter Vindahl's name is worth mentioning here – but the seven goals of the “No. His sweeping foot to deny Harry Kane seemed the best bet until injury time, when Emiliano Martinez made himself incredibly tall to deny Serge Gnabry from close range. What better goalkeeper to have between your sticks on the biggest nights?

RB: Jurrien Timber, Arsenal

He only played 45 minutes, but he spent most of last year battling a serious knee injury. He can finish work earlier if the work is already done. Be that as it may, in that three quarters of an hour Jurrien Timber certainly left Bradley Barcola with scars that will last a lifetime. Timber belied his small stature in Arsenal's huge defensive force, fighting and pressing every ball that came his way.

And Arsenal were prepared to put a lot of pressure on him. Their pressing in the first half seemed designed to give PSG a ball to Barcola on the left. He would get the ball with his back to the goal, Timber would rush in and the ball would be back with a red jersey for a moment. Add to that a goal-saving tackle when Barcola (and everyone else on the field) was convinced he had forced his way inside the Arsenal penalty area, and you have a performance good enough to at least beg the question , whether Ben White can simply storm back into his right rear bunk.

CB: Jonathan Tah, Bayer Leverkusen

No central defender in Tuesday's games delivered more expected passes in possession than Jonathan Tah, who remained tenacious in defense despite getting Bayer Leverkusen on the right track with the ball in a 1-0 win over AC Milan. It was a tough, uncharacteristic experience for the champions at the weekend as they struggled to get much of the ball from Bayern Munich. It was a less intense duel for the Leverkusen defense, but Tah was just as impressive.

“I think you can put the Bayern game aside a bit,” said Tah after the Milan win. “It's been a long time since we last played a game in which we defended so much. So it wasn’t difficult to get back into our normal mode and be more dominant on the ball.”

CB: Alexsandro Ribeiro, Lille

There were moments when Lille had to rely on Lucas Chevalier between the posts and on the opponents' poor finishing, but the defense withstood Madrid's pressure quite well in the second half, holding the European champions to just eight shots, including six which came from the 86th minute. No wonder Lille were so stubborn and cleared away everything that came their way. That spot could go to Bafode Diakite, who got under Antonio Rüdiger's skin late on, or even the newly appointed Tiago Santos, but Alexsandro Ribeiro is the man who won the duels and made the big drops.

LB: Alvaro Fernandez, Benfica

Readers, I have been doing these Teams of the Week for over a year now. I've gotten a bit of a handle on this, I know what I'm looking for, and I usually find it just manageable to keep track of so many games and their individual cast members, even on busy nights like these. Still, after all this time, I can hardly find a left-back that satisfies me. I suspect there is a lack of quality talent in this position

Andrea Cambiaso made the difference with a wonderful cross to Dusan Vlahovic before glorious chaos reigned at the Juventus Stadium. Ultimately, a series of dynamic runs through the midfield – six progressive runs in the first 65 minutes – ensures Alvaro Fernandez gets the nod this week.

CM: Jerdy Schouten, PSV

Regular readers will know that for Team of the Week we don't award places outside the front line for goals, even for goals as glorious as Jerdy Schouten's. What was special about the 27-year-old's performance throughout the 90 minutes was the moment before he put Geny Catamo in the bag, making a Sporting breakout the ideal point of attack for PSV.

Schouten did this throughout the game, recording 17 ball recoveries, five tackles and two interceptions. More than anyone else, he ensured that this game was played the way PSV wanted. If the players in front of him had shown Schouten's precision in front of goal, Tuesday would have been a good win for the Dutch team.

CM: Ilkay Gunodgan, Manchester City

Nobody at Manchester City will get carried away with a 4-0 win in perhaps the most one-sided game of the league season. However, there is a way to get maximum returns from these games with minimal effort. That's exactly what Ilkay Gunodgan did, leading the game with 115 of 123 passes completed, five chances to score for his teammates and an early goal to put his team in control. This kind of play says nothing new about whether a 33-year-old, who has become increasingly attack-minded over the years, could be the man to plug the Rodri-shaped hole in City's midfield for the toughest games. However, in the many, many games where Pep Guardiola's men are prohibitive favorites, he could be up to the task.

Right: Karim Adeyemi, Borussia Dortmund

The last year or so has been a strange time for those of us who have fallen deeply in love with the speedster who rocked the Austrian Bundesliga with Salzburg. Borussia Dortmund, and Edin Terzic in particular, saw Karim Adeyemi's electrifying pace and understandably concluded that it could be used just as effectively out of possession as in possession. Many of the young player's best moments on the way to the Champions League final were of the sort that he would never make it onto the stat sheet, let alone the highlights reel, as he stormed back from the front line to ensure that a full-back had no chance to overlap or help his full-back.

This defensive work was put to good use in glamorous places on Tuesday evening. Two of Adeyemi's hat-trick goals came because he was willing to compete with Celtic players to secure possession in places where he could fire electrifying shots. The Scottish champions simply had no answer to this mixture of pace, hard work and wild shooting power. You may not be the only one having problems.

Cameraman: Ademola Lookman, Atalanta

European Cup nights are sure to bring out the best in Ademola Lookman, who scored the opener for Atalanta and scored the second in a comfortable win against Shakhtar Donetsk. The goal in particular highlighted how Lookman's game has developed since leaving England. The outrageous backhand in the penalty area is the facet of his game that has shined since his time at Charlton. The Poacher's instinct that saw him find space to meet Sead Kolasinac's cross is, overall, more attributable to Bergamo.

Lookman might just doubt it for this team, but it would be unfair to let this section pass without acknowledging the excellence of his attacking midfield partner Lazar Samadzic. Ultimately, whatever separated these two may have simply been spent. The Serbian international attempted eight attacks. He completed eight. Add to that the six chances Samadzic created and you can feel confident that he will be overwhelmed.

LW: Abdallah Sima, Brest

A rising young talent in Ligue 1 who is already achieving great success in the biggest continental competition there is? Aaah, this guy will cost a pretty penny for some Premier League team, won't he? Wait… what is that? Brighton? For £6 million? These guys…

ST: Dusan Vlahovic, Juventus

Mehdi Taremi was tipped for that point before a brilliant penalty shootout in Turin. For a while it was thought that Benjamin Sesko might have scored the goal of the round when, like a tractor, his foot sent a phenomenal shot past the first of two Juventus goalkeepers he would score against. Ultimately, however, he was overtaken by Vlahovic, perhaps even twice. The technique of sending the ball to the far post with your left foot to score the opening goal is actually more difficult than it looks.

Then the second goal came, a curved shot after excellent work with the ball. Vlahovic won the ball back for Juventus under his own power, created space and used it wonderfully by blocking a shot just out of Peter Gulacsi's reach. Juventus' No.9 may have his off nights, but when he's good, he's very, very good.

Bonus replacement: Jhon Duran, Aston Villa

More than six shots per 90 in the Premier League and Champions League. Almost one xG per 90. More than two actual goals per 90. All of this is so obviously magnificently untenable, isn't it? Right? Or has Unai Emery perhaps discovered the Mariano Rivera among strikers?