We round up the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points of the day in FPL Daily, a series that services weekdays where there is no press conference round-up or Premier League match.
CHELSEA KNOCKED OUT OF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Chelsea have been knocked out of the Champions League after losing to Real Madrid 5-4 on aggregate at the Bernabeu.
In a classic encounter, the Blues went 3-0 up through goals from Mason Mount (£7.5m), Antonio Rudiger (£6.2m) and Timo Werner (£8.6m), but efforts from Rodrygo and then Karim Benzema in extra-time put Carlo Ancelotti’s side into the semi-finals.
Reece James (£6.3m), meanwhile, was excellent on the right of a back three, while Werner followed up his brace of goals at Southampton at the weekend with a brilliantly taken strike in the second-half.
For FPL managers, tonight’s loss does at least ease the schedule for Chelsea and, in theory, should mean less rotation during the run-in.
Chelsea XI: Mendy, James, Thiago Silva, Rudiger, Loftus-Cheek (Saul 105), Kovacic (Jorginho 105), Kante (Ziyech 100), Alonso, Mount, Werner (Pulisic 83), Havertz
DIAS UNLIKELY TO START
Pep Guardiola has revealed Ruben Dias (£6.1m) will travel with the Man City squad for Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Atletico Madrid.
The Portuguese skipper has missed the past six weeks through injury but returned to training on Monday.
However, the City boss was keen to point out that Dias will not start given his lack of full training and game time.
“He travels with us. From the beginning tomorrow? No. He did one training session after six weeks off. It is premature, but the fact he is back with the schedule we have is good. Everyone will be important and Ruben is.” – Pep Guardiola on Ruben Dias
There was also an encouraging update regarding Cole Palmer (£4.5m), who has missed several weeks with a foot injury.
“He is much, much better but I don’t think he will travel. I will finish the list later. Maybe if he feels good. He feels better and we tried to avoid surgery. The doctor says we will try to avoid it, hopefully…” – Pep Guardiola on Cole Palmer
KLOPP HINTS AT ROTATION
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has spoken to the media to preview Wednesday’s Champions League tie against Benfica and confirmed that there are no new injuries to report.
However, a bit of rotation could be on the cards given the Reds’ relentless schedule, with Ibrahima Konate (£5.1m), Luis Diaz (£8.0m) and Roberto Firmino (£8.7m) candidates to come into the starting XI.
“The next game has no influence on the line-up for tomorrow night, but the last game has. We have to see, a really super-intense schedule. No one injured as far as I know in this moment, but we need to have a look at who is fresh enough for this game. We see it as a super important game, we won the first leg 3-1 and I know for people who have nothing to do with the game, it’s halfway through and then you play City left and right of the game. And then it’s like the focus could be somewhere else – we see it slightly different, to be honest!” – Jurgen Klopp
