Champions League Group Stage Overview
I decided to look at data from @fbref and @InStatFootball and bring a few metrics to take a look at players' performance in this group stage. All data per 90 minutes and minimum of 230 minutes (sorry KDB fans )

Starting with what brings us to the game: fun. Dribbling opponents, carrying the ball, getting your team closer to the opposition's goal. Without surprise, Messi and Neymar are all the way up there, followed by other great players: Ocampos, Sancho, Mbappe, Coman and others.

By taking a look at the shots on target % and xG per game I tried to find any similarities in between the greatest finishers in Europe. Immobile showing how great is form is, Haaland and Messi great, as expected. The size (of each dot is the xG per shot)

When talking about club identity, this table should be shown. The Red Bull philosophy of pressing high and as a group really highlighted here. De Ketelaere played half of his games as a winger, but is still incredibly rated off the ball. Who doesn't enjoy a hardworking forward?

This metric should be called "The Leo Messi metric", but I am trying to be unbiased. Despite Barcelona's not as exciting moment, Messi is still the God of through balls and finding his teammates in good positions. We can look at how good Kimmich is as well.

There are a few people on my timeline who love "ball carrying center backs" ( @joeclowery and @johnspacemuller pop out immediately), but I decided to include also full-backs, who these days have a massive role in build ups. Zinchenko is fantastic and City missed him for a while.

Progressive passes and switches of play aka "The Quarterback". Depending on how your team plays, having a quarter-back would not be a bad idea. The good news for Real Madrid is that they have two of them. The bad news: that sums up Madrid's attacks dominantly through the wings

Finding players in between lines is getting harder and harder. When attacking against deep blocks, who should you give the ball to? Arthur is up there, and Juve knows it. We can see how many times players are the target of a pass, but also how often they play through defenders.

To end, the famous comparison between Expected and Real Offensive Production. Plea was fantastic in the group stage, just like Coman. Despite not having the best numbers, Messi, Forsberg and Werner were dominant offensively and performed really well.

Feel free to leave your feedback, suggest data to look at and to highlight specific players.