Erling Haaland’s dink, Virgil van Dijk’s assists and every Dream Team talking point from dramatic Champions League night

THE Champions League reached a dramatic crescendo when 18 simultaneous fixtures settled the final standings of the league phase.

Let’s rattle through all the key Dream Team talking points after a hugely positive night for the English clubs.

ARSENAL

The Gunners made it eight wins from eight games in Europe with a 3-2 win over Kairat in what was essentially a dead rubber.

Most of Mikel Arteta’s favourites were given a rest but there were some interesting developments in the forward department.

Viktor Gyokeres (£5m) banked a morale-boosting 15 points via a goal and assist while Kai Havertz (£4m) earned 14 points in just 45 minutes having also scored one and assisted another.

The German is an interesting case as neither his Swedish team-mate nor Gabriel Jesus (£4.5m) have locked down a starting spot up top.

If Havertz is given a string of starts then his ownership (currently 0.4%) will skyrocket.

Noni Madueke (£3.8m) earned maximum points via eight successful dribbles.

LIVERPOOL

Arne Slot’s side made light work of Qarabag at Anfield with a 6-0 win to finish third in the table.

Dream Team bosses would have been reminded of years past watching Mohamed Salah (£6.1m) and Virgil van Dijk (£4.4m) combine for 48 points in Gameweek 21.

The latter registered his best haul of the season in the form of a 20-point return against Azerbaijani opposition that featured THREE assists!

Dominik Szoboszlai (£4.9m) added another nine points to his tally to take his total for the season to 211 — only Erling Haaland (£7.4m) is above him in the rankings.

Hugo Ekitike (£4.7m) was the most transferred-out player of the week prior to kick-off but a goal and assist has evidently prompted a few reversals as that’s no longer the case.

TOTTENHAM

Spurs are below Sunderland, Brighton and Bournemouth in the Premier League but a 2-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt meant they finished above Barcelona, Real Madrid and PSG in the Champions League league phase.

Cristian Romero’s (£4m) goalscoring streak came to an end in Germany but the World Cup winner assisted Randal Kolo Muani’s (£3.4m) opener and contributed to his side’s clean sheet for a 13-point return.

The tenacious centre-back is statistically the second-most in-form asset in Dream Team at present having taken 39 points from his last three outings.

This fruitful run has propelled him up to eighth in the rankings among players in his position.

It will be interesting to see how many gaffers take a punt on Thomas Frank’s troops when the round of 16 produces some appealing double Gameweeks in March.

Credit to Xavi Simons (£4.1m) for his all-round performance that yielded maximum bonus points — 15 player performance marks (PPM) is no joke.

MANCHESTER CITY

Haaland’s drought is over!

The Norwegian poacher scored his first goal from open play since before Christmas with a composed dink during City’s 2-0 win over Galatasaray.

This will put a lot of minds at ease and it may be the case that more than a few managers move the captain’s armband back onto the 302-point striker for Gameweek 22, with Pep Guardiola’s side scheduled to face Spurs and Newcastle.

Jeremy Doku (£4.7m) was on course for a mega haul before he limped off in the 37th minute.

The Belgian winger registered two assists and raced to three bonus points via five successful dribbles before his involvement was cut short.

Guardiola will be frustrated by the injury but it may benefit backers of Antoine Semenyo (£5m), Phil Foden (£5.1m) and Rayan Cherki (£5.8m), who will probably get plenty of minutes in Gameweek 22 if Doku is ruled out.

Back-to-back clean sheets have lifted Gigi Donnarumma (£4.1m), Matheus Nunes (£4.8m) and Abdukodir Khusanov (£3m) up the rankings — all three claimed healthy double-digit hauls in Gameweek 21.

City snatched eighth place in the table to swerve the play-offs.

CHELSEA

Joao Pedro (£3.9m) came to the fore again on Wednesday night with a clutch brace to help the Blues come from behind against Napoli to win 3-2 and qualify for the last 16 directly.

Add in a goal and assist at Selhurst Park and the Brazilian banked a whopping 33 points in Gameweek 21.

All of a sudden, Chelsea’s No20 ranks third among Dream Team strikers with 176 points to his name.

No wonder he’s the most popular recruit ahead of Saturday’s deadline.

Enzo Fernandez (£4.5m) was the other big winner.

The Argentine No8 converted another penalty to score his 10th goal of the season in all competitions.

He needs just two points at home to West Ham this weekend to become a double centurion — only three midfielders have more points at the time of writing.

NEWCASTLE

The Magpies earned a creditable draw against PSG in the French capital but when all was said and done they dropped out of the top eight and will now fulfil a two-legged play-off in February.

These fixtures will be added to Gameweeks 24 and 25 once the match-ups have been confirmed.

Gaffers who like to target additional midweek games will be keen on Eddie Howe’s top performers as they have the busiest schedule of the lot for the foreseeable future.

Nick Pope (£4.1m) saved an Ousmane Dembele penalty to continue his good form and the England international has risen to third in the rankings among keepers — he currently appears in 3.2% of teams.

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