Skip to main content

Team of the Weekend: Diaz dazzles with hat-trick as Lamine, Messi & Haaland all impress

Luis Diaz was the star of the show for Bayern on Saturday
Luis Diaz was the star of the show for Bayern on SaturdayPhoto by ALEXANDER HASSENSTEIN / GETTY IMAGES EUROPE / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

Another packed round of domestic football is behind us, which means it's time to unveil our latest Team of the Weekend. This time, our XI has no shortage of star power, with plenty of household names shining over the last few days.

As always, we've chosen our Team of the Weekend using Flashscore's in-house rating system to select players out of the best domestic leagues worldwide, from the Premier League to LaLiga and beyond.

Who made it into our XI this time? Find out below!

Our latest Team of the Weekend
Our latest Team of the WeekendFlashscore

Starting at the back, Venezia goalkeeper Filip Stankovic was an easy choice between the sticks, as he made nine saves to help his side edge Napoli 1-0 on Saturday and grab their first points of the season.

In front of the Serb, PSG's Ilya Zabarnyi and Roma's Leonardo Balerdi both made our back three after helping their teams to important wins over the weekend. Zabarnyi even scored as PSG went joint-top with a 3-1 win at Strasbourg. Between those two is Kasimpasa's Adem Arous, who bagged a brace as the Istanbul side toppled Samsunspor 4-1 in Turkey.

Our midfield is, frankly, ludicrous, but in all the right ways! It is led by Luis Diaz, who stole the show in the Bundesliga by notching an impressive 9.7 rating thanks to his hat-trick for Bayern, but more on him below.

Get all the news about your favourite players and teams!

Transfers, news, interviews: Turn on notifications for articles about your favourite players and teams.

How to turn on these notifications?

New notifications
New notificationsFlashscore

Equalling that score was Antoine Griezmann, who lit up MLS with two goals and an assist as Orlando smacked DC United 4-1. At the very same time, Lionel Messi scored his own brace in Inter Miami's win on Saturday, while earlier in the day, Lamine Yamal powered Barcelona to a ninth win from nine in LaLiga thanks to a goal and an assist to batter Betis.

Erling Haaland scoring a couple is barely news these days, but the big Norwegian's pair was crucial for controversy-stricken Manchester City, as they edged Ipswich 3-2 to stay clear at the summit of the Premier League.

Brazilian Evanilson helped get Bournemouth back on track with a goal and assist as they beat Sunderland 2-0 on Sunday, while Paris FC's Lassine Sinayoko starred in a wild win over Rennes.

Leading lights

Luis Diaz (Bayern Munich) 9.7

The man of the weekend was Colombia's Luis Diaz, who shone in Munich as Bayern bashed RB Leipzig 6-1 to get themselves back on top of the Bundesliga standings.

Driving down the left and cutting in onto his lethal right foot, Diaz scored three times in the rout, as well as assisting Aleksandar Pavlovic's goal. Diaz led the match in shots, touches in the opposition box, goals, of course, and notched the highest player rating, naturally.

His first two strikes were very well-taken finishes, but he saved his best for last, drifting across the edge of the area through a crowded space, before bending the ball into the bottom right corner. To illustrate how good his finishing was, his three goals came from an xG of just 0.54, and an xGOT of 1.08.

Explosive, electric, and most of all, effective: Diaz dazzled on the weekend.

Luis Diaz's player rating card
Luis Diaz's player rating cardFlashscore

Filip Stankovic (Venezia) 9.3

Moving over to Italy, it's not often that we highlight goalkeepers, but Stankovic's performance for Venezia has warranted it this week. As mentioned, the Serbian keeper was immense for his side, making nine saves to keep a clean sheet as they battled past Napoli 1-0 on Saturday.

The fancied visitors mustered an incredible 29 shots, with 10 on target for an xGOT of 2.06. That wasn't enough to beat Stankovic, however, who made save after save to earn a rating of 9.3. His moment of the match came just after the hour mark when he saved a penalty from Kevin De Bruyne.

To add even more impact to his performance, Venezia had started the season with six straight losses in Serie A, meaning these three points will feel like so many more.

Lassine Sinayoko (Paris FC) 9.6

There are many star names in our XI this week, and it's easy to highlight Lamine or Messi or Haaland again, but it's nice to take the chance to shine the spotlight on a lesser-known player from time to time.

That brings up to Paris FC striker Sinayoko, who put in a phenomenal performance as his side beat Rennes 4-3 in a Ligue 1 thriller on Sunday.

Esteban Lepaul made headlines in this match for scoring three penalties for the losing side, but Sinayoko was the true star. In the first half, the 26-year-old Malian used his hold-up and link-up skills to assist two goals for Maxime Lopez.

After Rennes had brought it back to 2-2, Sinayoko then scored a wonderfully acrobatic overhead kick to retake the lead, only for Lepaul to score a third penalty with just minutes to go. Using his strength, Sinayoko then won the match's fourth penalty and scored from the spot in the 97th minute to earn a win that leaves Liam Rosenior's side joint top of the table.

Signed from Auxerre in the summer for just €8 million, Sinayoko now has six goals in seven games in Ligue 1. If he keeps up this form, he might just attract some serious attention.

Pat Dempsey is a senior editor on Flashscore's global news desk. Based in Europe but from Australia, his expertise lies in football and cricket. You can read his feature articles here and find him on LinkedIn.

Pat Dempsey
Pat DempseyFlashscore
Prefer Flashscore on GoogleSee our stories more often
AddAdd on Google