Brazil is the best represented country in the European Champions League, based on the number of field players who saw action when the competition's group stage kicked off.

Thirty-two teams are vying for the title of Europe's top club and in last week's 16 games the 65 Brazilians who played accounted for 14.07 percent of the field players. The next largest contingent were 37 Frenchmen (9.3 percent), followed by 24 Portuguese (6.03 percent) and 22 Italians (5.53 percent), according to Germany's Bild newspaper.

German national team coach Joachim Loew lamented the low number of Germans who are seeing top-level club playing time. Germany's three Champions League entries, Hamburg SV, Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen, started two, three and five Germans, respectively.