Champions League Team of the Week

Lionel Messi proved to be the best performer this midweek.

Both English teams failed to overturn first leg deficits in the Champions League last-16, but still managed to come away from their games with their heads held high after impressive performances at some of the most daunting of football stadia.

Here, we summarise WhoScored.com's Champions League team of the week, with the best XI performers lining up in a 4-4-2 formation.

Goalkeeper: A time when Arsenal's goalkeepers were a liability seems like a distant memory these days. Wojciech Szczesny was, admittedly, sent off in the first leg, but he was unfortunate rather than overly rash, and his deputy Lukasz Fabianski proved he too has grown as a player in recent years. Formerly nicknamed 'Flappy-handski' for a tendency to dither on crosses into the box, the Pole was immense at the Allianz, winning the WhoScored man of the match award after making five saves, including one from a Thomas Mueller penalty before reacting quickest to the rebound and more pertinently, successfully claiming three crosses.

Right-back: Man City midfielder James Milner was brought in by Manuel Pellegrini to help stem the threat of Barcelona's attacking full-back Dani Alves. The Brazilian was unperturbed, though, making it two goals in two appearances against Manchester City with a late winner at Camp Nou last night. It is unsurprising that Alves' main input was on the front foot -- he made only one tackle and no interceptions, but completed three successful dribbles, had one shot and made one key pass.

Left-back: The horde of talented youngsters that PSG have on their books continues to astound, with Lucas Digneleading the way. The full-back is only 20 years of age but already has a full international cap and looks well set to be the future French first-choice in that position. Against Leverkusen he made three tackles and interceptions and also set up Ezequiel Lavezzi's winner.

Centre-back: Marquinhos is another of those young players, and he scored the first of PSG's goals on his way to a WhoScored rating of 7.6, with a bullet header from Yohan Cabaye's corner. The Brazilian was most impressive in possession, maintaining a pass success rate of 96 percent.

Centre-back: Vincent Kompany's imperious performance for Manchester City was not enough to atone for the disaster that was Joleon Lescott, as his side crashed out of the Champions League. The Belgian netted a consolation but also made a gameweek-high total of 10 tackles and interceptions.

Central midfield: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain provided Arsenal and England fans with some cheer with a fantastic performance in a deeper position than he is used to this week. The Gunners were under pressure from the off and, predictably, didn't see too much of the ball playing against Bayern Munich. As they struggled to string together many passes, dribbling out was the main way to relieve pressure and ‘The Ox’ was their biggest hope of making ground up the pitch, completing as many dribbles (10) as Bayern did overall. Only Neymar and Hazard (11 each) have beaten more opponents in a Champions League game this season and they did so in significantly lower-profile matches, at home to Celtic and Steaua Bucharest, respectively.

Central midfield: Atletico Madrid continue to compete with the best in Europe and still have an outside chance of winning two trophies this season. They dispatched Milan with some ease as Gabi controlled things in the heart of midfield. An assist for Raul Garcia's goal not long after striking the post capped off a fine performance, in which he attempted more passes than any other player (72) and still maintained a pass success rate of 90% percent.

Right midfield: Arjen Robben was criticised for “diving well” against Arsenal, but he was undeniably fouled as he skipped past Laurent Koscielny to win a penalty late on. He had been a constant threat, dribbling past five players, winning three free kicks, attempting three shots and putting eight crosses into the box.

Left midfield: Manchester City needed to “rough Barcelona up” at least a little bit, if only to disrupt their game if they were to get anything from their Nou Camp clash, but Andres Iniesta was unfazed, taking the game to City and drawing six fouls from them. He also completed four dribbles, played two key passes and had three shots. Barca were deserved winners and Iniesta was one of the standout performers.

Striker: Player of the week, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, did much to make Lescott's return to action a tough one, striking the post after turning the centre-back inside out and later capitalising on his error to score the opening goal. Moreover, he set up five chances and should have had a penalty early on, when that man Lescott put in a poorly timed challenge.

Striker: Diego Costa was again on fire, continuing his incredible goalscoring campaign with two clinically taken goals from two shots on target. The Brazilian-turned-Spaniard might just turn out to be the missing piece -- if ever there was one -- to the current Spain national team and 2014 could well see him star at the World Cup this summer.

All statistics courtesy of WhoScored.com, where you can find yet more stats, including live in-game data and unique player and team ratings.