Europa Conference League stats dive: alternative stars of Matchday 2

UEFA.com has a treasure trove of statistics covering many aspects of play to enhance the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's newest club competition.

In this piece presented by Swissquote, we pore over the Matchday 2 data to find out who topped the charts across a number of important metrics.

Most passes completed

106: Nicolai Boilesen (Copenhagen)
95: Harry Winks (Tottenham)
86: Valtteri Moren (HJK Helsinki)
85: Cristian Romero (Tottenham)
85: Kevin Medina (Qarabağ)

Boilesen became the first player to reach three figures for completed passes in a UEFA Europa Conference League game (admittedly, there have only been two matchdays). He is one of three Copenhagen players to make the top ten in this category along with Davit Khocholava (78) and Zeca (75) – a measure of the Danish side's dominance against Lincoln Red Imps as they enjoyed two-thirds of the possession in a 3-1 win.

Crosses completed

9: Graham Carey (CSKA-Sofia)
7: Pep Biel (Copenhagen)
5: Dani de Wit (AZ Alkmaar)
5: David Khurtsidze (Alashkert)
5: Ricardo Alves (Kairat Almaty)

There was a bit of an aerial assault at CSKA-Sofia as the hosts' Carey bombarded the box in search of a way to Bodø/Glimt's goal. The Norwegians adopted a similar tactic, and Patrick Berg was just outside the top five, but the defences stood firm in a goalless draw.

Balls recovered

15: Jaroslav Zelený (Jablonec)
13: Luis Hernandez (Maccabi Tel-Aviv)
11: Cristian Romero (Tottenham)
11: Bernardo Lopes (Lincoln Red Imps)
10: Tomáš Holeš (Slavia Praha)

Defences were on top as AZ Alkmaar edged Jablonec 1-0 yet Zelený's performance was still a cut above – the centre-back made eight more ball recoveries than any other player. It was more of a team effort from Maccabi Tel-Aviv with three of their defenders registering nine or more turnovers, Hernandez and his fellow stoppers keeping them in the game long enough for them to snatch a late equaliser at LASK. Holeš starred at both ends, completing the top five in this category and scoring their goal at Feyenoord.

Clearances

9 Nuraly Alip (Kairat Almaty)
8 Lovro Cvek (Zorya Luhansk)
8 Rade Dugalić (Kairat Almaty)
7 Five players

There was no doubting Kairat's commitment as centre-back pairing Alip and Dugalić racked up 17 clearances between them against rampant Basel. It was all one-way traffic for the first 50 minutes as the Swiss side opened up a 4-0 lead (later halved as the visitors rallied) and but for some last-ditch defending the scoreline would have been even more one-sided.

Most saves

7: Heinz Lindner (Basel)
7: Dmytro Matsapura (Zorya Luhansk)
6: Assaf Tzur (Anorthosis)
6: Alfred Gomis (Rennes)
5: Daniel Peretz (Maccabi Tel-Aviv)

Lindner was a single save off top spot on Matchday 1 but went one better with an inspirational display against Kairat – only a fine strike and penalty beat him with Basel already 4-0 up – while the only player to match his tally, Matsapura, was on the end of a 3-0 defeat by Roma. Gomis's exploits were arguably the most important he was the only other member of this top five to finish on the winning side as Rennes edged out Vitesse 2-1.