Team of the week - Matchday 6

Ten different sides are represented in our Matchday 6 Player Rater Team of the Week, which includes a UEFA Champions League debutant, a hat-trick hero and the unlikeliest of scorers.

Goalkeeper

Vicente Guaita (Valencia CF)
Valencia’s third-choice goalkeeper shone on his first UEFA Champions League start. He set the tone by thwarting Dimitar Berbatov in a one-on-one – the first of a series of saves which limited United to just the one goal, prompting Sir Alex Ferguson to describe it as a "golden day" for the 23-year-old.

Defenders

Sebastian Prödl (SV Werder Bremen)
Bremen’s 3-0 win against champions FC Internazionale Milano owed much to vim and endeavour, qualities no more evident than in Prödl. He also got them on their way with a towering header from a Torsten Frings corner just before half-time.

Toby Alderweireld (AFC Ajax)
It is no mean feat going to San Siro, scoring twice and keeping a clean sheet. Ajax did just that on Wednesday to ensure themselves of a UEFA Europa League berth and Alderweireld was influential at both ends, scoring a superb second from outside the box midway through the second half.

Benedikt Höwedes (FC Schalke 04)
Up until Luisão’s goal three minutes from time, SL Benfica had been superbly kept at bay by Schalke. Höwedes was particularly pivotal at the heart of the German side’s defence and capped a fine night’s work with a goal of his own – his second in as many matches.

Răzvan Raţ (FC Shakhtar Donetsk)
The unlikeliest of heroes for the Ukrainian titleholders, Raţ found the net for the first time in 83 UEFA club competition appearances – going back over a decade – to break the deadlock and then set up Luiz Adriano to assure Shakhtar of victory against SC Braga and a first appearance in the last 16.

Midfielders

Franck Ribéry (FC Bayern München)
The French international had not scored twice since February 2009 before two cool finishes either side of Anatoliy Tymoshchuk’s close-range strike ensured Bayern of a comfortable victory against FC Basel 1893.

William Kvist (FC København)
Captain Kvist led his team through to the last 16 with a display of impressive composure in midfield against Panathinaikos FC, spreading the ball to the flanks with superb precision to launch attacks, and slowing the play down whenever necessary.

Christian Eriksen (AFC Ajax)
Only 18, but you would never have guessed it. Old hands such as Andrea Pirlo, Massimo Ambrosini and Clarence Seedorf were all overshadowed by Eriksen, the heartbeat of an impressive Ajax performance at San Siro.

Eran Zahavi (Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC)
As willing and as enterprising as his Hapoel team-mates against Olympique Lyonnais, Zahavi’s goal will take some beating – a sensational overhead kick which scarcely looked feasible until the very last second.

Forwards
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid CF)
Benzema continues to shine in this season’s UEFA Champions League, producing the ’perfect hat-trick’ in Madrid’s win against AJ Auxerre. Scoring with a left-footed drive to add to his headed opener, the France striker then chipped in exquisitely with his right before the night was done.

Jermain Defoe (Tottenham Hotspur FC)
More than two months out through injury meant Defoe had not found the net since registering a hat-trick in England’s 4-0 win against Bulgaria on 3 September. Two predatory strikes at FC Twente soon saw to that.