Five Winners & Five Losers From Champions League Week, Featuring Arsenal, Man City, Suarez & Ronaldo

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Losers:

1) Arsene Wenger

As much as his players may have let him down with some poor individual moments, Arsene Wenger cannot hide from his atrocious record in the Champions League, and is facing another early exit from the competition this season despite getting perhaps the easiest possible draw, on paper at least. Arsenal fans will be unhappy again, and there will surely be more calls for the Frenchman to finally step down at the end of this campaign.

2) Olivier Giroud

One of the individuals who was badly off form for Arsenal on the night, Olivier Giroud had an absolute shocker for the Gunners against Monaco, missing chance after chance before being hauled off after the hour-mark. The Frenchman is not a bad player by any means, but this game perhaps highlighted his lack of quality at the very top level, or simply the wrong mentality to cope with the big-game situation.

3) Jurgen Klopp

After a nightmare season in the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp will have been hoping for some respite in the Champions League. Sadly for him, his side were beaten once again this season as they lost 2-1 to Juventus. Given the quality of their opposition, it’s hard to see them turning it around in the second leg, even if they managed an away goal through Marco Reus. This team is certainly a far cry from the side that reached the 2013 final and turned all of Europe into temporary Dortmund fans.

4) Vincent Kompany

Like Giroud for Arsenal, Vincent Kompany put in a dire performance for Manchester City that could have big consequences for his career at the club. The Belgian centre-back was badly caught out by Barcelona and looked at fault for the first goal in particular, leaving his side with a mountain to climb for the second leg at the Nou Camp.

5) Lionel Messi

As Barcelona got the right result, Lionel Messi probably won’t be too bothered, but the Argentine was the subject of a comical ending to the game at the Etihad Stadium, firing a poor penalty almost straight at Joe Hart before then getting the diving header on the rebound badly wrong when it looked impossible to miss, and in doing so missing the chance to totally kill the tie.

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More Stories Arsenal FC AS Monaco Borussia Dortmund FC Branislav Ivanovic Chelsea FC Cristiano Ronaldo Dimitar Berbatov FC Barcelona Lionel Messi Luis Suarez Manchester City FC Marco Reus Olivier Giroud Real Madrid CF Vincent Kompany