Top 10 Team Power Rankings (Week 16/2/18)

The past week saw the return of European continental competition including the Champions League and the Europa League, where Europe's elite battle it out for dominance. This, in addition to Cup football and league competition in multiple countries makes for a sizzling Top 10 this week.

Here is the 10:




1. FC Barcelona (no change) - Despite a lacklustre 0-0 draw at home to Getafe in league competition, Barcelona stay atop the rankings due to the fact that the Catalan club is looking ahead to their Champions league match-up against Chelsea in the coming week. The goalless draw also doesn't impact Barcelona's title charge as they built quite a points buffer in the early part of the season.

2. Bayern Munich (no change) - Similar to Barcelona, Bayern are looking ahead to their Champions league fixture - at home to Besiktas. During the past week, Bayern won their league match 2-1 over a lively Schalke.

3. Manchester City (+2) - Bouncing back into dominant form, the blue side of Manchester obliterated a poor Leicester City in the Premier League 5-1 and then continued the punishment in the Champions league round of 16 against FC Basel, building a comfortable aggregate lead by scoring 4 goals away from home in a 4-0 win, to head back to the Etihad sitting pretty to advance to the final 8 in the competition.

4. PSG (-1) - Despite a win during the week over Toulouse (1-0), everyone's eyes where on PSG's clash with Real Madrid in the Champions League, this past week. The match turned sour for the French side as Real Madrid captured a 3-1 win despite PSG totally dominating the game. Neymar caused havoc on the Madrid back-line completing 13 successful take-ons, but the loss put PSG on the outer to qualify for the next round. A vital away goal from Adrien Rabiot, could be the only lifeline for PSG.

5. Liverpool (new) - The red's flexed their attacking muscles in the Champions League this week by sending FC Porto into oblivion with a 5-0 away win, almost guaranteeing a final 8 place for the team from Anfield. The front 3 all scored, with Sadio Mane grabbing a hat-trick and Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino hitting the back of the net for the other two goals. Along with this win, Liverpool also beat "Feeder Team" Southampton 2-0 in league competition to aid in attempting to solidify a top 4 spot.

6. Juventus (-2) - The team from Turin continued to push for a league title with a comfortable 2-0 win in the league against Fiorentina, but it was the Champions league where the Italian's structure fell apart. Big game veterans like Buffon, Chiellini and Khedira all had sub par games where opponents Tottenham were more than capable of capitalizing. The 2-2 draw after being up 2-0 within 10 minutes, through 2 Higuain strikes makes it hard for Juventus to qualify for the next round, heading to Wembley Stadium.

7. Atletico Madrid (+1) - Two wins in the past week in league play and continental competition (Europa League), 1-0 over Malaga and 4-1 over FC Copenhagen is enough to see Atletico rise in the ranks. Continuing the winning success in recent weeks has seen the Madrid based side rekindle the fighting spirit and fear put in opponents that was ever-present during Atletico's powerhouse years in recent memory.

8. Napoli (-2) - A big win over top 5 placed Lazio in league competition (4-1) was another huge step in attempting to clinch the Scudetto title, by staying ahead of Juventus. However, it was in the Europa league that Napoli let themselves down. Being a favourite to win the whole competition, the Naples side was swept aside by RB Leipzig 3-1 at home, making for a tremendously hard away tie to advance.

9. Tottenham (new) - A big win over North London rivals Arsenal in the Premier League gives Spurs a bit of breathing space in their pursuit for a top 4 finish. Despite still sitting 5th in the league, the win moved them 7 points ahead of Arsenal in 6th and leaves them 1 point behind Chelsea in 4th and 4 points behind Manchester United in 2nd. Additionally, in Champions League competition, Spurs showed they can match it with the big boys in pressure situations by coming back from 2-0 down to resurrect a 2-2 draw away to Juventus. They are now in the drivers seat in the tie.

10. Real Madrid (new) - A dismal season has now sprung to life! After beating Real Sociedad 5-2 in the league, Real then went on to beat the seemingly unbeatable PSG in the Champions league in the past week. With Ronaldo scoring 2 goals in that match, it put him on 11 goals in 7 Champions League games this season - a remarkable feat, including being the first person to score in 7 consecutive Champions League games. Albeit getting dominated by PSG when looking at the match as a whole, the score is all that matters. With the league title gone and out of the Copa del Rey, Real's focus is the Champions League. Could a three-peat be in the making?


OUTS - FC Porto, Manchester United, Bayer Leverkusen


By Luke Scali - Twitter @WFC _LS_Potzi      

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