Europa Conference League stats dive: Alternative stars of the round of 16 first legs

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 sift through the data to see who earned top billing across a number of match-defining metrics.

Most passes completed

107: William Saliba (Marseille)
103: Jordan Teze (PSV Eindhoven)
99: Boubacar Kamara (Marseille)
96: Duje Ćaleta-Car (Marseille)
91: Valentin Rongier (Marseille)
91: Armando Obispo (PSV Eindhoven)

Marseille keeper Steve Mandanda summed up the mood after his side's 2-1 win against Basel, saying: "We controlled the game, we created a lot of chances. The fly in the ointment is that we should have ended with a bigger winning margin." OM had four of the week's top six passers – 107 of Saliba's 110 passes finding their target, while Kamara, Ćaleta-Car and Rongier came close to a century of sound passes each.

Crosses completed

5: Orkun Kökçü (Feyenoord)
4: Marc Albrighton (Leicester)
4: Cody Gakpo (PSV Eindhoven)

Feyenoord's set-piece man Orkun Kökçü kept himself busy from open play too, mustering a number of shots as well as five completed crosses. Albrighton and Gakpo delivered slightly less in terms of crosses but both ended up on the scoresheet, with the Leicester man getting some full-time appreciation from manager Brendan Rodgers: "He's invaluable. He gets his reward tonight for a great performance."

Balls recovered

15: Aiham Ousou (Slavia Praha)
13: Michael Ngadeu-Ngadjui (Gent)
12: Gernot Trauner (Feyenoord)
12: Siniša Saničanin (Partizan)

Slavia's high-pressing style had LASK on the back foot from the start, and they might have been four or five up by half-time, Ousou leading the way in regaining lost balls and pressing his side forward. Slavia coach Jindřich Trpišovský was less impressed with their second-half showing following their 4-1 win: "I just did not like our interplay in the second half and the fact that we conceded a soft goal."

Clearances

11: Roger Ibañez (Roma)
9: Nayef Aguerd (Rennes)
8: Siniša Saničanin (Partizan)
8: Michael Ngadeu-Ngadjui (Gent)
8: Philipp Wiesinger (LASK)

Roma's 1-0 win at Vitesse does not look too impressive on paper, but the Serie A side were not given an easy ride in Arnhem and were grateful for Ibañez's repeated efforts to clear their lines. As for Aguerd's Rennes, they looked set to leave Leicester with an acceptable 1-0 loss before the Foxes got a second late on. "We gave them goals after mistakes which we paid dearly for," said the Moroccan.

Most saves

5: Rui Patrício (Roma)
5: Alexander Schlager (LASK)
5: Kamil Grabara (Copenhagen)
4: Justin Bijlow (Feyenoord)

Rui Patrício was alone among the top savers of the night in having kept a clean sheet. Indeed, LASK's Schlager and Copenhagen's Grabara both conceded four each, while Feyenoord's Biljow had two put past him in his side's 5-2 win at Partizan.