Champions League Player Rankings: Tevez Rises, Messi Reigns, Boateng Drops

Welcome to the seventh round of our UEFA Champions League knockout-stage player rankings, in which we order the competition's top players so far this season. As we've entered the semi-finals we have narrowed the field down to a top 15, knocking five off the bottom and moving away from the top-20 format.

Both home sides claimed important victories, with Barcelona desecrating Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich and Juventus squeezing out a victory over Real Madrid. An astonishing 11 players have dropped from last week—a few due to poor form and the format change, nine due to their clubs being knocked out at the quarter-final stage—so expect seismic changes and massive readjustments.

The criteria are simple: We pick the 15 best players on the basis of form in European games only and update the rankings after each round.

Due to their sides exiting the competition, the following players have left the rankings. The number in brackets denotes their rank following the culmination of the quarter-finals.

Juanfran, Atletico Madrid (2)

Aymen Abdennour, Monaco (4)

Koke, Atletico Madrid (5)

Blaise Matuidi, Paris Saint-Germain (6)

Jackson Martinez, FC Porto (7)

Geoffrey Kondogbia, Monaco (9)

Yacine Brahimi, Monaco (10)

Miranda, Atletico Madrid (13)

Fabinho, Monaco (18)

In addition, Karim Benzema, Real Madrid (12), did not play due to injury and drops out. Jerome Boateng, Bayern Munich (14), was shown the trap door by Lionel Messi and leaves as a result.

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via: bleacherreport