Which midfielder earned a perfect WhoScored 10 rating in the Europa League?

For Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting, this season has been about making the most of the chances that have been afforded to him by Schalke head coach Andre Breitenreiter.

The 26-year-old has only started seven league games this season with a further six appearances coming as a substitute. With the likes of Leroy Sane and Max Meyer ahead of him in the pecking order for wide berths, it has proven hard for Choupo-Moting to nail down a regular starting berth.

However, he will now be hoping to build on an immense all-round performance that earned him a perfect WhoScored 10 rating in their 1-0 win over APOEL Nicosia that ensured their spot in the knockout stages of the Europa League on Thursday night.

The Cameroon international scored the only goal of the game, but it wasn’t just his work going forward that ensured Schalke remained unbeaten in the group stages, but also his desire to help his side without the ball, which is a trait all managers will appreciate from their forward players.

Only teammate Leon Goretzka (8) completed more tackles than the Schalke winger (7) in their 1-0 win, which is a staggering return for a predominately offensive-minded player. In fact, he completed nearly twice as many tackles in 90 minutes against APOEL than he has in his previous 207 minutes of Europa League action this season (4), and half as many tackles as he has managed in 13 appearances in the Bundesliga this term (14).

Added to that, Choupo-Moting also successfully completed as many dribbles as the entire APOEL team combined (6) and he will now be pushing for a more regular feature in the Bundesliga after such a dominant performance that made him the highest rated place in gameweek five of the Europa League.

For more stats on Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting, click here to visit his WhoScored player page