The UEFA Fantasy Champions League kicks off this evening and, if you’ve keeping up, you will have noticed that we’ve already published a comprehensive guide to the game that should hopefully be of some help to those Fantasy managers looking for some pointers ahead of the big kick-off.
Those signing up can also join the Scout League (code: 212-74) and then sit back and soak up our first “European Watchlist” ahead of Matchday One.
The following batch of players are our ‘Ones to Watch’ in the next two days of Champions League action…
Yann Sommer of FC Basel is the perfect candidate to kick off our European adventure – a cheap goalkeeper with a good fixture (at home to Romanian champions Oțelul Galați). If you’ve a bigger budget then investing in Petr Cech or Julio Cesar (if Inter can get over their 4-3 thumping by Palermo) wouldn’t go amiss.
Dani Alves is a defender by name but certainly not by nature. Barcelona fielded just one single defender in a tie last month and there’s no reason to expect Pep Guardiola to give the Brazilian anything other than a license to attack Milan this evening.
Ligue 1 offers some reasonable value defenders as Souleymane Diawara travels with Marseilles to Greece to face Olympiakos with the hope of keeping some sheets clean while Mathieu Debuchy will be looking to continue some of his recent goalscoring form for champions Lille.
New Inter Milan manager Gian Gasperini is intent on bringing his 3-4-3 formation to the Nerazzurri. This has opened up the option for some of Inter’s full backs to play “Out of Position” on the flank of the midfield – Yuto Nagatomo (an absolute snip as a 5.0 defender) should do that on Wednesday and become a solid option for it. Unless the rumours circling around Italy this morning are true.
If your knowledge extends to Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, choosing from the tie Plzeň and BATE Borisov could also reap reward – our Jonathan Wilson level knowledge of Eastern European football isn’t there. Yet.
Dortmund’s home tie versus Arsenal will give the hottest young property in Germany a chance to show Arsene Wenger just how good he is in the flesh. This is one match-up we’re very much looking forward to seeing and Mario Götze is a big reason behind our excitement.
Another midfielder reportedly on Arsene Wenger’s late window shopping radar was Eden Hazard. Opponents CSKA are in bad shape and bad form right now and Hazard should cause them all sorts of problems – especially coming off his second half, two-goal performance in St. Etienne this weekend.
Lyon have played seven games in all competitions already this season and, as of yet, have been unable to chalk up a clean sheet. News like this augurs well for an Ajax side that will be welcoming Remi Garde’s outfit to the Amsterdam Arena on Wednesday night. Christian Eriksen is likely to be the key figure behind any such goals and at just 6.0 in price is more than worthy of a healthy amount of backing.
As Andre-Villas Boas’ main signing of the summer, there might be a lot of weight of expectation upon Juan Mata to bring verve to the Chelsea attack. Priced kindly at 8.5 and with a home game against Bayer Leverkusen we imagine he might just use the Champions League stage to woo the Stamford Bridge faithful.
Cypriot champions APOEL are back in the Champions League after just a year away. It’s not them we’re looking at, though; opponents Zenit will be visiting the shorelines of Cyprus tonight and both Danny (midfield) and Aleksandr Kerzhakov (forward) should have a big part to play in any result.
With the ‘higher ups’ missing the fact that Diego Forlan is cup tied, the Inter frontline should choose itself and we’re opting for Diego Milito. With a mellow 8.5 price-tag and back under the stewardship of an old manager (his most prolific season came under Gasperini at Genoa a couple of years back) goals should on the horizon.
With Igor Akinfeev missing through injury the CSKA defence looks more like a lace curtain than one made of iron. Last season’s Ligue 1 winner and top scorer Moussa Sow will be looking to put his name out on the European stage by making the most of this opportunity.
Those scraping the barrel of the budget options could do a lot worse than visiting FC Basel once again for Swiss veteran Alexander Frei who’ll be facing the previously mentioned Romanian champions.
La Liga also has a couple of options that might shine this week. 7.5 for Roberto Soldado visiting FC Genk looks like another value striking option – he’s scored four goals in his two La Liga games already- and that Lionel Messi chap is reported to be pretty good at this football lark too.
Those are the players we’ll be keeping a close eye over the next two evenings. Don’t forget to join the Scout League and remember deadline for entry is 7:30pm (GMT) tonight – Fantasy Managers will likely have eight team sheets at their disposal to help team selection if it takes their fancy, too.
We’ll be back tomorrow morning with our notes from all eight of those fixtures. Here’s hoping for some big talking points.
