Champions League Team of the Round: Messi and Ronaldo still top

The biggest takeaway from the Champions League round of 16 was that suggestions Premier League sides were on the brink of ending Spanish sides dominance in the competition were premature.

Manchester United and Chelsea both crashed out against Sevilla and Barcelona, respectively, while Tottenham’s mental fragility was exposed by the experience of Italian giants Juventus.

Incredibly, Leicester are the only Premier League side that have eliminated a Spanish side from the Champions League in the 10 attempts.

Questions whether Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s powers are waning have also been put to bed after both played integral roles in Barcelona and Real Madrid’s respective progression to the next stage of the competition.

Messi finished with the highest WhoScored rating over the two legs (8.77) after scoring three goals against Chelsea, including two at the Camp Nou on Wednesday evening.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, gave a timely reminder that he is still the main man at Madrid after helping Madrid dump Paris Saint-Germain out of the competition.

The 33-year-old played a direct hand in four of the five goals Madrid scored against their French counterparts and incredibly kept up his record of scoring in every single Champions League game this season, netting 12 goals in the process.

Ronaldo is joined in the team of the round by Madrid teammates Casemiro and Marcelo, while Samuel Umtiti also represents Barcelona in the best rated XI.

United were knocked out of the Champions League 2-1 on aggregate to Sevilla but it could have been worse had it not been for star man David de Gea. The Spanish goalkeeper made 12 saves over the two legs, the most in the round of 16 ties.

Manchester City’s Ilkay Gundogan and Sadio Mane of Liverpool round off the Premier League representatives in the best rated XI after both played pivotal roles in the first legs of their respective contests.

Images of Giorgio Chiellini celebrating every tackle, block and interception in the second leg of Juventus’ 2-1 win over Tottenham went viral and the Italy international is the lone Serie A representative in our best rated XI. He made more clearances (22) than any other player in the round of 16.

Thomas Muller has arguably benefited from Jupp Heynckes return to Bayern Munich more than any other player and the Germany international features on the right flank with a WhoScored rating of 8.61. The 28-year-old played a direct hand in four of the eight goals Bayern put past Besiktas over the two legs.

Basel may have been eliminated from the competition but they did become the first team to beat Manchester City at the Etihad this season. Right-back Michael Lang scored the winner to came a remarkable comeback from Basel in the second leg, but the tie was already as City ran out 4-0 winners in Switzerland two weeks earlier.