The 2024/25 UEFA Champions League (UCL) begins next Tuesday – and so does the competition’s official Fantasy game.
We’ll have plenty of coverage on UCL Fantasy over the next few days in preparation for the big kick-off, as well as articles throughout the season.
If you’re new to the game or just need a reminder of the rules, check out our ‘how to play’ guide here.
For everything else, bookmark our UCL Fantasy 2024/25 comprehensive guide for content as it’s added.
Make sure you sign up for Premium Membership ahead of the big kick-off, too!
Our series of preview articles starts by looking at the best UCL Fantasy goalkeepers on offer.
READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 4 team news: Friday’s live injury updates
Michele Di Gregorio (€4.5m)
Given that Juventus are yet to concede a single goal in Serie A, Di Gregorio feels criminally underpriced. I predict him to be a very popular pick among UCL Fantasy managers.
Juventus’ fixtures are also pretty nice, with PSV Eindhoven, Lille and Stuttgart in the first four games.
RB Leipzig are the Old Lady’s away pot 1 opponent, which is about as favourable as you could wish for.
There’s more on Di Gregorio below in terms of a possible pairing with a premium goalkeeper.
Alisson Becker (€6.0m)
Speaking of teams who haven’t conceded yet, Liverpool have had a great start of the season under new manager Arne Slot.
It’s three clean sheets out of three for the Reds so far. It took them 10 league games to reach that tally last season.
The struggle for find an effective ‘number six’ was partly to blame in 2023/24 but Ryan Gravenberch has proven surprisingly effective in that role under Slot to date.
Their run of games consists mostly of offensive-minded teams like Leipzig and Leverkusen but Alisson’s Fantasy form is hard to ignore as things stand.
Above: Premier League teams sorted by expected goals conceded (xGC) in 2024/25
Gregor Kobel (€5.0m)
Borussia Dortmund are one of the teams with the best starting run of games.
Despite facing Real Madrid in a 2023/24 final rematch in Matchday 3, by the end of Matchday 5 they will have faced most of their pot 3 and pot 4 opponents.
Kobel is the cheapest goalkeeper from pot 1 teams alongside Leipzig’s Peter Gulacsi, whose starting fixtures are way worse.
The Dortmund custodian boasted some excellent underlying numbers last season:
Marc-Andre Ter Stegen (€6.0m)
Ter Stegen has got me thinking a lot. At first, he seems like a great premium pick, with Barcelona having one of the best initial runs from the pot 1 teams.
On the flip side, Barca defenders are available at cheaper prices.
But then I realised I had overlooked how well ter Stegen combines with another top pick like Di Gregorio.
I’ll explain myself: in the last few years, teams would play on Tuesday or Wednesday depending on their group, so managers already knew that if they wanted to make goalkeeper substitution, they needed a ‘keeper from both Groups A-D and E-H.
This year, the teams play across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in a non-fixed way. This means it is very hard to find viable goalkeeper pairs that do not overlap for more than three consecutive weeks.
Ter Stegen and Di Gregorio are an exception, avoiding playing on the same day until Matchday 6. If budget allows, this pairing are worth a look.
Above: Barcelona had one of the best xGC figures in the Champions League last season
Janis Blaswich (€4.5m)
RB Salzburg is the only team outside of the first two pots to have a goalkeeper on this list.
While they bowed out of this competition at the group stage last year, they did keep clean sheets in tough trips to Benfica and Real Sociedad.
It should be easier this year – at least initially. Blaswich is not only cheap but has a great first half of the group stage in terms of fixtures.
His Salzburg side face the likes of Stade Brestois, Dinamo Zagreb and Sparta Praha.
After Matchday 4, his fixtures drastically rise in difficulty but that can be dealt with in various means (ie transfers or a Wildcard).
Jan Oblak (€6.0m)
Atletico Madrid and Diego Simeone are always a good and reliable defensive option.
While it can be argued that Oblak is a little bit overpriced, the nice run of fixtures across the board for the Spanish team more than makes up for it.
Atletico sailed through the group stage last season, keeping clean sheets in two of their three home fixtures.
Oblak was on the right side of the save percentage/goals prevented average line in the 2023/24 Champions League (see the graphic in Kobel’s section above).
Simon Mignolet (€4.5m)
Brugge’s run is very middle of the road.
Dortmund, Villa and Milan may be tricky but it could have been worse from pots one and two especially.
Strum Graz and Celtic are definitely at the more favourable end of the scale.
With Juventus and Manchester City stuck at the end of the group stage, I feel like a punt on Mignolet early on can provide good results if you want to go low-budget on goalkeepers.
While it’s a step up in class to the Champions League, the Belgian side embarked on a run to the semi-finals of the Conference League in 2023/24. That run featured six clean sheets in 12 matches.
Thibaut Courtois (€6.0m)
It would be foolish of me to ignore the defending champions.
Despite a mildly underwhelming start to the season with two wins and two draws in four matches, Real Madrid are dab hands at European club competition.
They also have a pretty OK draw with Borussia Dortmund as their home pot 1 opponents.
Stuttgart and Lille are up before that, giving Courtois a great chance to get off to a flying start.
