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Champions League Team of the Round: Matchday 5 - Cavani fires Napoli ahead of Manchester City & Soldado hat-trick leads Valencia to spectacular seven-goal victory
Goal.com picks the cream of the crop from the fifth set of group stage fixtures in Europe's elite club competition
Nov 24, 2011 9:00:00 AM
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| Champions League Team Of The Round: Matchday 5 Tables/Results |
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| GOALKEEPER |
Steve MANDANDA
Marseille
| Marseille may have lost their Group F encounter with Olympiakos on Wednesday, but Mandanda performed several spectacular saves throughout the match, the most breathtaking of which came when he denied Jose Holebas' long-range strike after appearing to be wrong-footed. He was unfortunate to be beaten by a superb volley late on. |
| DEFENDERS |
 Olof MELLBERG Olympiakos |
 Marcelo OLIVEIRA APOEL |
 Hugo CAMPAGNARO Napoli |
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| Another man in fine form in France was Mellberg; the veteran Swede led his defence well to keep out the OM attackers and secure a crucial clean sheet to keep his side in contention for a place in the last 16. APOEL made history by becoming the first Cypriot side to progress to the knockout stages of the Champions League, and Oliveira played a pivotal role in the scoreless draw with Zenit St Petersburg by clearing a late effort off the line. Another brilliant display came from Napoli's Campagnaro. The former Sampdoria player made several essential, and often acrobatic, interceptions as Manchester City tried to find goals at the Stadio San Paolo and also did well to start some attacking moves for the Italians. |
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| MIDFIELDERS |
 Jose CALLEJON Real Madrid |
 Axel WITSEL Benfica |
 Alexandre SONG Arsenal |
 Toni KROOS Bayern Munich |
 Eden HAZARD Lille |
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| Arsenal secured their place in the next round with a 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund and Song certain found his rhythm, not only going on an excellent solo run before setting up Robin van Persie's opener, but also protecting his back four with aplomb. Benfica also booked their ticket to the last 16 via an exciting 2-2 draw at Old Trafford, during which Witsel was at the heart of the visitors' impressive performance on the road. Kroos was also outstanding as Bayern Munich heaped further misery on Villarreal, supplying two fine assists for Franck Ribery in a 3-1 triumph at Allianz Arena. Callejon made the most of his opportunity in the Real Madrid starting XI, replacing Cristiano Ronaldo in Jose Mourinho's line-up admirably by scoring a brilliant brace against Dinamo Zagreb and linking up well with his team-mates. Meanwhile, Lille earned the three points they needed against CSKA Moscow in Russia to stay alive in Group B as Hazard combined well with Joe Cole to dictate the attacking play of the French champions in a truly impressive display that will have further increased his already soaring valuation. |
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| FORWARDS |
 Roberto SOLDADO Valencia |
 Edinson CAVANI Napoli |
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| Los Che waltzed to one of the most one-sided Champions League results of all-time as they pummeled Genk 7-0 and Soldado kept up his recent fine form with a first-half hat-trick on Wednesday evening. Finally, Cavani revived Napoli's hopes of qualifying for the last 16 with a vital brace to topple Manchester City, allowing the Serie A side to jump into second place in Group A and hold their fate in their own hands going into the final matchday of the group stages. |
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Champions League Team of the Round: Matchday 4 - Barcelona's Lionel Messi & Real Madrid's Cristano Ronaldo reach incredible milestones
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