The fallow period in between Matchdays in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) Fantasy game normally give us cause to rustle up a Scout Report for our European Fantasy managers. Ahead of the final round of the group stages, we’ve changed tact, however, and offer instead a rundown at what is a notoriously tricky Matchday in the Champions League calendar …

Rotation Considerations

One of the many pitfalls that faces the final round is that, even more than before, one really starts to see a giant threat of rotation hanging over the heads of players like a precariously placed chandelier in an Only Fools and Horses skit. Some sides will have already qualified for the knockout stages whilst others are already heading out of the departure lounge having packed their bags for another season.

There are ten teams heading into next week’s round of matches that conceivably fall into this category:

Confirmed Group Winners: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Arsenal.

Already knocked out: Villarreal, Otelul Galati, Dinamo Zagreb, FC Genk, Shakhtar Donetsk.

The five sides guaranteed top spot, in particular, are the teams European Fantasy managers need to be wary of. Will Bayern, Barcelona, Arsenal and co roll out full-strength teams given their respective positions of strength? Jose Mourinho rang the changes for Real Madrid last time out, leaving Cristiano Ronaldo out completely and could follow suit once again, bearing in mind that Real face Barca in La Liga three days after their game away to Ajax.

Pep Guardioa will surely be thinking along the same lines, despite his side hosting BATE a day earlier. With Arsene Wenger admitting fatigue concerns over the likes of Robin Van Persie, an away trip to Olympiakos could be the perfect time to rest the Dutchman.

The likes of APOEL and Benfica are currently top of their respective groups and through to the next stage but could yet finish second- as a result, they still have plenty to play for this coming week and can be expected to field strong line-ups.

Similarly, European Fantasy managers with players from the likes of FC Porto, Valencia, Chelsea and Manchester United, amongst others, can be much more confident, with each of these teams requiring a favourable result next week to remain in the competition.

Tuesday Night Deadline

First of all, with the above in mind- if you somehow still have a wildcard in hand, use it. We get another one at the closure of the Group stages to cut adrift any deadwood accumulated, with a total of seven transfers per each knockout stage thereafter.

Committed European Fantasy managers will be able to take advantage of the fact there are no early kick-offs this time round. The deadline for team selection is 7:30pm (GMT) Tuesday evening and, as teamsheets normally start rolling in from 6:30pm onwards on any given Matchday, this affords a substantial advantage over fellow UCL Managers unable to play so close to the deadline.

Those not confident enough of picking the right players from Lille, Napoli and co ahead of those teams’ respective Wednesday evening fixtures will have the bounty of 16 sets of Tuesday night teamsheets to make their transfer choices from instead. If you don’t want to gamble on whether or not Joe Cole will make an appearance, you can wrap yourselves in the security blanket of the line-ups and be rest assured that your picks will definitely start a fixture if nothing else.

If you’re in the position to go Wildcard crazy, don’t go too overboard with your Tuesday night options. With manager’s substitutions to play in the UCL format you will, ideally, want at least three outfielders and a goalkeeper) set to play on Wednesday, though, so you can throw them into the mix if any of your players fails to live up to expectation.

In Summary

• Strongly consider using your wildcard if you still have it in your locker.
• Use the sixteen Tuesday night line-ups to your advantage.
• Be wary of sides with little left to play for.

We’ll be back in a week’s time with a final European Watchlist article that hopefully won’t get caught out by heavy duty rotation. That’ll be without the luxury of the Tuesday night line-ups – one of, if not the key weapon, ahead of this final round.