Alexander-Arnold: Valverde the most underrated player in world football

Trent Alexander-Arnold lauded a "massive performance" from Real Madrid against Manchester City, labelling Federico Valverde as the world's most underrated player.

Madrid claimed a brilliant 3-0 win over Man City in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie, on the back of Valverde's stunning first-half hat-trick, although Vinicius Junior saw a penalty saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Valverde's goals came in the space of 22 minutes, with the Uruguayan's third strike being the pick of the bunch, as he lifted a delicate touch over Marc Guehi before volleying in from close range.

Madrid's captain on the night led Los Blancos for shots (three), chances created (two, alongside Vinicius), dribbles (seven) and duels (17), with Valverde winning four and 11 of those, respectively.

Alexander-Arnold played behind Valverde on the right flank, and he could not praise the midfielder enough.

"I am running out of words for him as a player," Alexander-Arnold told TNT Sports.

"He is undoubtedly the most underrated footballer on the planet.

"When you play with him you understand how much he gives to the team. He covers every blade of grass and gives his all.

"As a player, the best attribute you can have is that your team-mates can always count on you and he never lets us down."

Valverde's hat-trick was just the fifth scored in the first half of a Champions League knockout stage match, after Lionel Messi (2010 v Arsenal), Robert Lewandowski (2022 v Red Bull Salzburg), Erling Haaland (2023 v RB Leipzig) and Anthony Gordon (this season v Qarabag).

For the 29th time in their history, meanwhile, Madrid won the first leg of a knockout stage tie in the European Cup/Champions League by 3+ goals. Los Blancos went on to progress in each of the previous 28.

Before kick-off, Pep Guardiola's team were considered favourites, though. Indeed, Opta's supercomputer ranked their chances at a healthy 45.9%.

Madrid were also without talisman Kylian Mbappe, who was not deemed fit enough to feature, while Jude Bellingham remains sidelined and defender Thiago Pitarch became the youngest Spanish player to start in a Champions League knockout stage match for the club.

"Massive performance," Alexander-Arnold added.

"A lot of the noise when the draw was made and leading up to this game, especially with the way we have been playing and the results we have had. A lot of people expected us to get battered.

"But it shows the mentality. It doesn't matter what injuries we have got or players out. This competition matters a lot to the club and as players we understand that. We go out there and they support us like that and anyone can win. We have executed the gameplan perfectly.

"We had confidence coming into this game. We knew our gameplan, we executed it and scored our goals very ruthlessly.

"The size of the game is the main thing. I don't want to say that other games are less important but when there is so much hype around a game and so many eyes on it, you know you have to perform. When you play for a club like this the expectation is that you have to win."