Manchester City's Sergio Aguero holds his head in his hands after missing a chance against Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium (Reuters)

Manchester City are this week's biggest losers with the Premier League champions counting the cost of a Champions League exit and a derby day defeat.

It has been a week to forget for Roberto Mancini's men, having been dumped out of Europe's premier club competition following defeat at Borussia Dortmund and then a loss against bitter rivals Manchester United in the dying moments of a highly-charged derby at the Etihad Stadium.

City's miserable last seven days are reflected in our rankings, where they are down 82 points from last week and fall a place to sixth. Their conquerors Dortmund

Saint-Etienne are a club moving in the right direction once again but their passionate support has been left frustrated by the team's continued impotence in what is, for them, the biggest fixture of all.

It is 31 years since Les Verts won the last of their 10 league titles, and 30 years since they reached a major cup final. But of more significance for Saint-Etienne right now is the fact that they have still not beaten bitter rivals Lyon at home since April 1994.

Sunday brought the 105th instalment of the Rhone derby, one of the most passionate in the French game, as bourgeois Lyon came up

Atletico Madrid superstar Falcao unsurprisingly leads the line in our European Team of the Week after plundering a remarkable five goals in Atletico Madrid's 6-0 win over Deportivo on Sunday.

"I scored five in a game when I was little in Bogota," said the Colombia international after his feat, "and I got four playing for Porto against Villarreal, but never five as a professional."

Alongside Falcao is Roma icon Francesco Totti, who claimed a brace in Roma's victory over Fiorentina, as well as providing an assist for the Italian club.

There are two rather less starry names in midfield, with

Twente coach Steve McClaren is stressing that Sunday's match with PSV Eindhoven at the Philips Stadion will not decide the destination of this year's Dutch Eredivisie title.

Leaders Twente and Vitesse Arnhem are one point ahead of Dick Advocaat's side after 15 league matches with PSV seeking to atone for a 6-2 home loss to McClaren's men in March under former coach Fred Rutten.

Twente led 4-0 at half-time and completed a crushing victory despite seeing central defender Douglas sent off early in the second half.

Former England manager McClaren is chasing a second title with Twente after

Team of the group stage

Lionel Messi unsurprisingly leads our team of the group stage after the Barcelona maestro's stunning performances so far in this season's Champions League.

The Argentine wizard is one of five Barcelona players to make the elite XI after six matchdays of action, during which the Catalan giants breezed into the knockout round with 13 points from Group G.

Andres Iniesta and Xavi form half of the midfield, while full-backs Dani Alves and Jordi Alba take their place in the back four.

Messi is joined up front by rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who helped Real Madrid through a tough 'group of death' which

Dortmund fans (Reuters)

More than a decade after a German team last won the Champions League, the Bundesliga believes it is back at the top table of European football.

For the first time, three of their teams were table toppers in Europe's premier competition, thanks to Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke.

If Stuttgart become the fourth Bundesliga club to reach second round of the Europa League, Germany will become only the second country to have seven representatives in the knock-out phase of European football, three years after Spanish teams achieved the same feat.

Bundesliga teams won 11 and drew six of

Champions League Team of the Week, December 4-5 2012

Juan Mata is one of three Chelsea players in our Team of the Week, as selected by expert and user ratings on Eurosport-Yahoo!'s matchcasts, despite the holders crashing out of the tournament.

Mata was on the scoresheet at Stamford Bridge, as were fellow inclusions David Luiz and Fernando Torres, but the Blues' 6-1 demolition of FC Nordsjælland at Stamford Bridge ended up being bittersweet, as results elsewhere meant they were consigned to the Europa League.

Borussia Dortmund provide two players this week - both defenders - after an impressive victory over mega-rich Manchester City while

Valencia's coach Mauricio Pellegrino

It was a year ago today and Valencia coach Unai Emery didn't want to answer a simple question about his side's forthcoming Champions League game against Chelsea.

I was in Spain's third biggest city to interview Pablo Hernandez. The winger wasn't happy at the club and keen to speak to an English journalist because he had half an eye on playing in the Premier League. He got his wish and is now with Swansea City.

After the interview, Emery was giving a press conference and I was encouraged to go by Valencia's media people. I inadvertently walked into a civil war, where the local media were at