Best Of The Rest Top Five: Towering Thiam triumphs
Across the non-elite leagues in Europe, we sometimes come across a gem of a performance, and there is no difference here as Mame Thiam of Kasımpasa scored a perfect 10 rating after his exploits in the Turkish Super Lig. There are also spots in our top five for players featuring in Norway, Russia, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
The Senegalese forward was a menace all game for the Antalyaspor defence, using his strength and speed to hold up the play, which is exactly what he did to lead to Kasimpasa netting the opener through Mustafa Pektemek. Only seven minutes later, Thiam would get on the scoresheet himself, before doubling his tally with 10 minutes remaining. Five out of seven shots on target and 100% of tackles won suggest Antalyaspor will be happy to see the back of him.
We go to the other end of the pitch now, as Viking goalkeeper Iven Austbo put in a miraculous performance against Valerenga away from home. Not only did he save a penalty from Bard Finne at a key moment in the game just after the break, but he pulled off an additional seven saves on the day, providing the base for his side to go on and win 4-0.
The most impressive thing about Aleksei Sutormin's outing against Rubin Kazan was not the two goals to help towards Zenit's 5-0 win, or even scoring them within 10 minutes, but rather he secured a rating of 9.4 despite not even starting the game. He came on at the break to replace Sebastian Driussi, and scored in the 65th minute with a calm header at the back post, before netting again with a rasper of a volley into the corner from seven yards.
Sundsvall are currently desperate for points, languishing in second-bottom of the Allsvenskan after 25 matches. They gained a vital victory over Kalmar largely due to the performance of Gracia, who opened the scoring with a beautiful glancing header from range just before half-time. For his bread and butter duties defensively, he made 10 clearances and won eight out of 12 aerial duels.
After three games without a win, Sparta needed a shot of inspiration against RKC, and they got it via their central midfielder. Harroui gained two assists on the day, both from the right-wing position, as he set up goals for Ragnar Ache and Mohamed Rayhi with a duo of precise crosses.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Mauro Junior (9.05) just misses out in the top five due to playing more minutes than Eredivisie colleague Harroui. The Brazilian scored two vital goals for Heracles as they overcame Twente 3-2 at the De Grolsch Veste Enschede.
ROUND TO FORGET
As Zenit destroyed Rubin Kazan 5-0, they were given a helping hand by Oleh Danchenko (4.3) who made one error leading directly to a goal as well as losing possession a crazy 15 times.