Champions League

Champions League Team of the Week: Neymar, Robert Lewandowski, Angel di Maria

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 20 August 2020

Sports Mole selects its Champions League team of the semi-finals, including Neymar, Robert Lewandowski, Angel di Maria and Serge Gnabry.

Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich set up a mouth-watering Champions League final showdown by both winning 3-0 in their respective semi-finals this week, ending the journeys of surprise packages RB Leipzig and Lyon in the process.

PSG were the first to book their place in the showpiece event at the Estadio da Luz, cruising past Leipzig to reach the final of the Champions League for the very first time.

Bayern were similarly comfortable against Lyon in the end as they reached the final for the first time since 2013 and an 11th time overall, keeping them in with a chance of lifting the trophy for a sixth time.

Here, Sports Mole selects its Champions League team of the semi-finals.

With such comfortable winners in both semi-finals it was impossible to pick anything other than an XI made up entirely of members from the two finalists.

Things might not have been quite as comfortable for Bayern without Manuel Neuer in fine form, though, with the German forced into three saves to deny Lyon a route back into the match.

Joshua Kimmich joins his clubmate in the defensive line courtesy of another impressive showing at right-back, chalking up assists for the first and third goals.

It is an all PSG backline aside from that, though, with the French outfit doing a better job of limiting Leipzig's chances than Bayern managed against Lyon. Centre-back duo Presnel Kimpembe and Thiago Silva were integral to that, putting the latter within 90 minutes of lifting the Champions League as his final action in a PSG shirt.

Juan Bernat also helped to thwart the Leipzig defence as well as having an impact further up the field, capping off the scoring with a glancing header 11 minutes into the second half.

Marquinhos opened the scoring in that match with a textbook glancing header of his own, getting his name on the scoresheet for the second game in a row, and he gets the holding midfield role alongside Bayern's Thiago Alcantara in this XI after the Liverpool-linked Spaniard put in another midfield masterclass.

Given the attacking talent on show it is no surprise that we have a star-studded forward line, and arguably the standout individual performance over both games came from Angel di Maria, who had a direct hand in all three of PSG's goals, scoring once himself and delivering the crosses for the other two.

Neymar was similarly influential, although he will have been frustrated to end the game with only one assist to his name after missing a couple of clear chances and hitting the woodwork twice.

Serge Gnabry was nowhere near as wasteful for Bayern, blasting the Germans into the lead with a superb solo strike after 18 minutes and then doubling their advantage shortly after the half-hour mark with a much simpler finish from close range.

Robert Lewandowski then capped the scoring off with a header for his 55th goal of a remarkable campaign, 15 of which have come in the Champions League as he closes in on Cristiano Ronaldo's single-season record for the competition.