The 6 best players in European football Matchday 3 – Ranking

Just when the European football season was starting to get into gear, an international break comes along to ruin everyone’s fun.

The international break at least gives us time to digest what was an absolutely crazy third day of the European football season.

With 7-0 wins, last-minute winners and Kylian Mbappé’s final LaLiga goal, it was a great weekend of football.

Now that the dust has settled, here is our list of the best performing footballers during the third round of the European football season (qualified, of course).

The clash against Parma on 31 August, due to a mixture of internal turmoil, anxiety about the transfer market and a resounding 3-0 defeat to Hellas Verona, looked like a defining moment for Antonio Conte’s Napoli.

And it was even more so when, surprisingly, they found themselves losing 1-0 thanks to a penalty from Ange-Yoan Bonny.

In the end, Napoli managed to turn the tables and take the victory thanks to a 92nd-minute equaliser from Romelu Lukaku and a 96th-minute winner from Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, who played a brilliant game in every aspect, winning nine duels and scoring that great goal.

We don’t tend to look beyond the top five leagues in this series, but given his exploits in the Old Firm, we’d be remiss if we didn’t give Daizen Maeda a mention.

The Japanese international was in fantastic form against Celtic’s arch-rivals last Sunday, scoring the opening goal at Celtic Park before assisting another in the eventual 3-0 win. Very good indeed.

Thanks to his exploits at Euro 2024, Lamine Yamal is already a true football superstar at just 17 years old.

He is not doing so badly in club football either.

The youngster returned to form last weekend in Barcelona’s 7-0 victory over Real Valladolid, in which he scored two goals.

After 35 games, Bayer Leverkusen’s unbeaten record in the Bundesliga came to an end at the weekend thanks to a brilliant performance from RB Leipzig’s Loïs Openda.

The striker virtually single-handedly secured Leipzig’s epic 3-2 comeback win over the reigning champions, scoring a sublime second-half brace at the Bay Arena.

Check out the highlights of the match if you haven’t already – it was a bloody game.

Kylian Mbappé’s La Liga game took a little longer than expected, but he showed what he’s all about in his fourth La Liga game on Sunday.

After failing to score against Mallorca, Real Valladolid and Las Palmas, Mbappé scored twice against Real Betis at the Santiago Bernabéu, and went into the international break without the pressure of a long-awaited goal in LaLiga.

Now that he’s fit, expect the French superstar to start scoring goals for fun in a Madrid shirt.

Speaking of scoring goals for fun, here’s Raphinha.

The Brazilian was absolutely lethal in front of goal against Real Valladolid, scoring three goals and providing an assist in the 7-0 win over Real Valladolid. What a level the Brazilian is playing

Maybe Barca didn’t need Nico Williams after all…?

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