UCL MD-3 Fantasy: Rate My Team

Haaland scores 23 points in FPL. Scotland, Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia are promoted, whereas England and Austria are relegated. Great news! Now, let’s get to what we’re all here for: UEFA Champions League!

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How I Fared

Haaland and Mbappe were no-brainers for me. I had hopes on Lewandowski to outsmart the defenders whom he played with for so many years, but unfortunately for him, and me, the Bayern defenders were the ones who won this particular battle, leaving Lewandowski with a paltry 2 points.

After experiencing Napoli’s spectacular display against Liverpool, I invested heavily this time around, filling my maximum quota of three Napoli players. They still had a good performance, and they even won 3(!) penalties... two of which Zielinski missed. Well, that’s fantasy for you!

Here are some of the highest earners from MD-2 for your reference (of which I had precisely zero on my team), sourced from UEFA:

Goalkeeper

• Antonio Adán (Sporting CP) – 8 points

Defenders

• Denzel Dumfries (Inter) – 12 points
• John Stones (Man City) – 10 points
• Joël Matip (Liverpool) – 12 points
• Lucas Hernández (Bayern) – 13 points
• Bjorn Meijer (Club Brugge) – 10 points

Midfielders

• Federico Valverde (Real Madrid) – 12 points
• Matteo Politano (Napoli) – 11 points
• Robert Andrich (Leverkusen) – 10 points
• Raheem Sterling (Chelsea) – 10 points

Forwards

• Ferran Jutglà (Club Brugge) – 14 points

Unlike the first match-day, MD-2 spread its goals relatively sparsely among all the games. This is a good thing, because I didn’t need to face the agony of not having a hattrick scorer on my team.

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Action Plan

Coming to the match-day ahead of us, here are the points that stand out to me the most:

1) I must get rid of some, if not all, of my Napoli players because their games against Ajax will be tricky.

2) €7.6m Reus is out injured.

3) €7.5m Kulusevski, who was supposed to be my differential, has been only disappointing so far in UCL fantasy.

4) Benfica conceded only three goals so far domestically after eight games played. I wouldn’t want to pile hopes on PSG to get the better of them.

5) Bayern vs Viktoria and Manchester City vs Copenhagen look like lopsided double-fixtures, and I have none of the former.

6) Liverpool vs Rangers and Real Madrid vs Shakhtar also seem relatively one-sided.

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Option A: Use my free transfers

Lewandowski has challenging fixtures for the foreseeable future, facing Inter twice and then Bayern again. He’ll be the first one to receive my boot. Benfica will bolster defense to deny PSG, but Mbappe and Haaland thrive in the UCL, and you’ll more often than not regret looking past them.

Marco Reus is out injured but is predicted to be match fit by this week, so he can stay on my bench for now and be in my starting-XI in MD-4. So along with Lewandowski, the next most expensive and also currently injured Kulusevski will make way for new arrivals.

Among the forwards, Benzema started MD-2 and seems like an exciting proposition to consider.

I also need a cheap way into Bayern. Musiala is lighting it up in every game he plays, and at just 7m, he’s an absolute steal.

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Option B: Cue the Chips

As DTuron mentioned in his guide to fantasy UCL strategy, the group stage is the best time to cash in your chips. For me, it seems logical to use the limitless before the wildcard. I can test the waters so to speak, and then I can change the entire team based on the inputs I get from this MD.

If I were to address all six concerns above, I’d need to max out on Man City and Bayern, touch upon Real Madrid and Liverpool, and avoid players from a few teams.

Leaving lots of room for trial and error, and patiently waiting for team news and potential lineups of course, here’s a draft team that pleases me:

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Are you pulling the trigger on a chip this week? What needs does your squad have? How much cash can you liberate? Please log in and tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

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