Klinsmannhoe core midfielder Hwang In-beom (27-Zvezda, Zvezda) has been shining in the European Champions League (UCL), which is often referred to as the ‘stage of the stars’.
Hwang played the full 90 minutes of the 2023-2024 UCL Group Stage 4 match against Leipzig (Germany) at the Lazio Mitic Stadium in Belgrade, Serbia.
Since joining Zvezda from Olympiakos (Greece) last summer, Hwang has started four consecutive UCL games and is on track to reach the Champions League.
His performances are good. In the team’s 1-2 loss, Hwang played as a central midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 formation, completing 82% of his passes (45/55), making one key pass, two shots, winning 70% of his ground battles (7/10), winning 60% of his tackles (3/5), recovering eight balls, making one interception, and winning one dribble. He was the only Zvezda player to post a rating in the upper seven figures (7.4, per Potomac). Despite the team’s third loss in four games and failure to qualify for the round of 16, Hwang In-beom shined once again after the last game against Leipzig. “We didn’t start well, but we changed our style tactically and mentally in the second half and moved in the right direction. To a certain extent, I think we were on par with the Germans,” he said.
Naturally, player rankings have risen. UEFA, in conjunction with this season’s sponsor FedEx, ranks players in the UCL in the FedEx Performance Zone, which looks at minutes played, goals, assists, shots, ball recoveries, penalty saves, clean sheets, pass completions, cautions, and ejections.
Hwang, who has played a total of 352 minutes in four games, has earned 57 points so far and is ranked 156th overall. After falling to 358th in early October, Hwang has jumped more than 200 spots in a month. He’s up 83 spots from the last round (239th). He is fifth among Zvezda players and 48th among all midfielders. He averaged nearly 12.1 kilometers of activity per game, which is impressive considering he played against midfielders from top European teams.
Hwang In-beom’s ranking is the highest of any Korean player in the UCL this season. ‘Monster’ Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), who will play against Galatasaray on September 9, is second with 48 points and 207th place. Kim was ranked 112th at the end of October before falling to 207th.
Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), the only Korean player to find the back of the net against AC Milan, is 349th with 29 points. This is due to the fact that he has been a substitute for three consecutive games this season. On Aug. 8 against Milan, Lee came on as a 15-minute substitute in the second half and played 30 minutes. He scored in the 43rd minute with a brilliant individual effort, beating a marker and firing a shot from the edge of the box that hit the post.
Celtic duo Yang Hyun-joon (6 points) and Oh Hyun-gyu (2 points), who came on as side-by-side substitutes against Atletico, are 스포츠토토 ranked 510th and 547th respectively.
As of 7:00 p.m. local time, Elling Holland (Man City) is the top-ranked UEFA player. The four-goal scorer has 168 points, overtaking top scorer Alvaro Morata (Atletico Madrid, 145). His ‘mate’ Kylian Mbappe is fifth.
