UCL Fantasy: Tuesday review, Wednesday preview and tips for substitutes and captaincy

Had an underwhelming Tuesday evening in UEFA Champions League Fantasy? Fear not, as the game allows managers to make manual substitutions and captaincy changes before the Wednesday matches begin.

In this article, we’ll recap last night’s fixtures and summarise the captaincy and substitution options available to UCL Fantasy bosses before this evening’s 17:55 GMT deadline.

MAKE CHANGES TO YOUR UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FANTASY TEAM AHEAD OF WEDNESDAY’S GAMES HERE

For further UEFA Champions League Fantasy reading and discussion, head over to our Community article page.

Last Night’s Review

Well that didn’t quite go to plan, did it? For me, and I’m sure many others, this Tuesday night was characterised by Bayern’s attacking pieces – chiefly Robert Lewandowski (12.0m) – failing to deliver.

Joshua Kimmich (6.5m) still managed to pick up 10 points with his long-range strike and looks to be a must-have asset ahead of the games against RB Salzburg. The Austrian champions looked defensively frail in their match against Atlético Madrid yesterday evening, with Joao Felix (9.0m) oozing class with a brace that could easily have been a spectacular hat-trick. 

Following up his 13-point haul from Matchday 1 with two goals, Duvan Zapata (9.5m) has established himself as Atalanta’s main offensive threat ahead of their double-header against Liverpool. Their much-discussed wing-back pairing of Hans Hateboer (5.0m) and Robin Gosens (5.5m) have disappointed so far, however, with no attacking returns.

The main man for their opponents Ajax was 19-year old Lassina Traore (5.0m), who now has six goals and four assists to his name since, er, Saturday. At 5.0m, he could prove to be a key enabler for his side’s games against Midtjylland in Matchday 3 and 4.

The other clash in Group D saw Liverpool rest their normal front three for most of the match in a perhaps undeserved win over Midtjylland, with Mohamed Salah (11.5m) showing his goal-scoring class to win and score a penalty having come off the bench. 

Real Madrid snatched their first point of the campaign from the jaws of defeat as a late goal and assist from Casemiro (6.0m) cancelled out Marcus Thuram’s (8.5m) brace. Picking up another nine ball recoveries to add to his 15 from last time, Casemiro has proven that he will always get points at a reasonable price.

Shakhtar Donetsk and Inter Milan played out a bore draw in Ukraine, with the scintillating attack which took apart Real Madrid nullified and Romelu Lukaku (11.0m) and Lautaro Martinez (10.5m) failing to get in the goals.

Manchester City signalled a return to form with a great 3-0 win in Marseille, with Kevin De Bruyne (11.5m) and Raheem Sterling (10.5m) both grabbing a goal and an assist. Olympiacos, City’s opponents in the next rounds of games, showed that their defence can be breached as they were poor in a 2-0 loss to Porto.

Captaincy

Does ‘Lewandowski – 4’ ring any bells? For those who captained players amongst the goals, congratulations, but for 99% of us who put our faith in a man with 10 strikes in four league games, we’re now left scrambling for a replacement. 

Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe (11.0m) and Neymar (11.5m) are obvious candidates with their trip to Istanbul Basaksehir. PSG seem to be better on the road in the Champions League and Mbappe, in particular, brings great form into this game as my favourite pick for captaincy this evening. Erling Haaland (11.0m) at home to Zenit is another attractive option.

After these three, Dynamo Kyiv’s Victor Tsygankov (7.5m) is a player with international quality and should be involved in Kyiv’s game against Hungarian minnows Ferencvaros.

Chelsea are expected to rotate heavily for their visit to a COVID and injury-stricken Krasnodar, but if Timo Werner (10.5m) or Christian Pulisic (9.0m) start, expect them to be among the goals. 

Substitutions

I imagine most will have some substitutions to make after last night, so try to prioritise bringing on players from PSG, Dortmund, Chelsea, Sevilla and Dynamo Kyiv with their kind fixtures.

Club Brugge’s cheap stars like Charles de Ketelaere (4.5m) could have a field day at home to a Lazio side who appear to have been heavily struck by COVID at the last minute, so I’d look to bring them on.

Juventus v Barcelona is likely to be a tight game between two sides still struggling to find their identities, but if anyone is going to be involved, expect it to be Lionel Messi (12.0m) and Alvaro Morata (9.0m).

As always, four points or less is a safe boundary to take players off for; five if you have particularly strong options to bring off the bench. 

Good luck all!

MAKE CHANGES TO YOUR UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FANTASY TEAM AHEAD OF WEDNESDAY’S GAMES HERE

For further UEFA Champions League Fantasy reading and discussion, head over to our Community article page.

Remember to sign up to our Fantasy Football Scout mini-league (PIN: 65KAB8EHX307) – there are Premium Memberships on offer for the leading managers in that.