UEFA Champions League Fantasy Football 2019/20 Last 16 – 1st Leg
Planning and Preparation
Hello everyone and welcome to UEFA Champions League Fantasy Football 2019/20 Last 16 – 1st Leg. The CL is back with a bang this Tuesday. And then Wednesday. And then the following Tuesday. And then the following Wednesday. And that’s just the 1st leg… Confused yet? Worry not, we got your back. The purpose of this article is two-fold;
1) We shall make simple sense of the above for you in terms of how you should approach this upcoming round.
2) It’s an interactive chat so as ever dive in below, ask questions, answer questions and then when the deadline(s) pass (more on those later, all 3 of them!) you can simply crack on and chat sh*t about the games.
So what do you really need to know this week…
Unlimited Transfers
Yep, you get to press the reset button this week, simple as that.
You can now include four players from any one team at this stage, as opposed to the standard three, this increases as we progress through the rounds.
Deadline(s)
They are aplenty!
The main one is the first one of course which is Tuesday 18th Feb at 8pm GMT. Which is kick off time too so you will at least have the benefit of seeing the team sheets for all of Atletico, Liverpool, Dortmund and PSG.
The above is the deadline for your initial squad selection but beyond that you can make substitutions and captain changes before each ‘game-day’ (what FPL call a ‘game-week’, UEFA call a ‘match-day’, but within each ‘match-day’ there are separate ‘game-days’);
Subs and Capo Changes
One of the beauties of Fantasy CL is that you get multiple bites at multiple cherries. Basically you get to change your captain between each game-day if you don’t like what the last one did, until the point at which you land on one you do like and also you can bring players off your bench who haven’t played yet and ditch ones who have from your initial XI. Just bear in mind that if you do any of the above you forfeit the right to automatic substitutions, but then again why wouldn’t you?
Which all brings us nicely onto;
Fixtures
We were going to create a nice fancy fixture tracker but it’s easier to follow the sequence of these games in simple text format:
Tuesday 18th Feb 8pm
Atletico v Liverpool
Dortmund v PSG
Wednesday 19th Feb 8pm
Atalanta v Valencia
Tottenham v Leipzig
Tuesday 25th Feb 8pm
Chelsea v Bayern
Napoli v Barcelona
Wednesday 26th Feb 8pm
Lyon v Juventus
Real Madrid v Man City
The good thing to note from the above is that the deadline on each game-day is 8pm, no faffing around with early kick offs, so again you will see the team sheets for all four teams each day before you have to submit your changes.
Strategy
1. Make the most of the teams with the ‘best’ fixtures. Why? Because they’re the best fixtures. But also because they are the teams most likely to progress. And that’s good because… they’ll still be in your squad! Although, granted, there are no gimmes at this stage, so we shall stop short of telling you that, for example, the likes of Leipzig, Napoli and Lyon may have their work cut out for them…
2. Spread your squad around a bit. By this we mean to take into consideration your sub and capo changes and try to play the percentages a bit. For example; If you have all of your defensive eggs in a Liverpool basket in day one and they concede you are limiting your chances of subbing someone in on a later game-day. Likewise with your potential Captain Picks, try and have a few big hitters spread across the four days, for obvious reasons.
The 2nd-Leg
This is an entirely separate ‘match-day’ and begins on Tuesday 10th March. You will get another 3 free transfers ahead of this one and it is laid out similarly to the 1st-Leg, the only difference being that the teams switch the days that they play on, so Liverpool, for example, go on Wednesday next time as opposed to Tuesday. We shall have another article to deal with this one at that point though.
The Game Itself and the FF247 League Codes
You can access the game here – Fantasy Champions League
We have two leagues running;
Our official FF247 league code is 32NQYUI4KW
This one is the usual open air league that all and sundry are welcome to join; there are over 1000 people in it. We have no idea who most of them are!
Our other one, the ‘Regulars League’ is now only open to new entrants via email
Please email us on contact@fantasyfootball247.co.uk if you want the code.
We did ask that people respected the purpose and integrity of this one; that is to say that you should only enter it if you consider yourself to be a Regular Community member on here. But this was unfortunately not adhered to. The phrase ‘this is why we can’t have nice things’ springs to mind. As a result we have now booted about 70 people out of it who we do not recognise. If you find yourself suspended and feel you shouldn’t be then please just say so in the comments below and we shall happily reinstate you.
The Regulars League Table
The Top 10 as we stand…
Still can’t decide on a goalkeeper :scratch_one-s_head:
At this stage of the UCL is unlikely to see any CS as usually all games are high scores, the question is who will make more saves.
Allison is the best bet Ivan.
Szczesny may not be a bad choice.
Have I gone mad with Mane, Salah, VVD and TAA? With ATM not big into scoring it could pay off.
It could work out if you think Pool will score several goals vs Atleti AND keep it tight at the back but that’s a lot of expensive players/money tied up in one team. As long as it’s ‘balanced’ otherwise..
I guess it is good that both VVD and TAA do have goal/assist potential in them as well.
Bookies have the most likely teams to win the first leg and not concede as :
Juventus 2/1
Atalanta 9/4
Liverpool 5/2
Mbappe, Salah or Haaland…who to captain?
Bees, I am definitely going with Haaland. This kid is unique, 8 goals in only 5 Bundesliga games since he joined Dortmund.
And then, you have Salah
Ivan, it is such a conundrum. I agree re Haaland. He showed us his skills in last CL. I may have to follow you. LIV are not scoring as much as last year either.
I think Mbappe will do fine. I have changed from Messi to him. Barca are in a slump and Leo has had the longest non scoring streak in years.
What would you change on my team?
On the other hand, PSG only managed 4-4 last Saturday with Amiens who are 19th in the French league 1. That said, Mbappe was rested and Neymar didn’t play because of a knock.
Ivan, FYI according to this website Pjanic is injured.https://www.teamfeed.co.uk/injuries-suspensions/football/europe/uefa-champions-league/injuries
Thanks bees. Changed to Ilicic.
Right this is where I’m at and probably where I’ll stay unless Liv teams news is drastic
Why do you think it may be drastic? Any news?
I think it is a turn of phrase bees.
I expect Liverpool to be at full strength tonight.
Thanks GP. I have gone mad with TAA, VVD and Salah. So that did worry me.
Who do you have in your team?
Same as above, I probably won’t change.
Have I gone too LIV mad? Had Ramos in, but would think MC will score. Any other suggestions?
That’s it, team set.
Don’t leave it until the last minute as the site is known to get dodgy before deadline :yes:
Reading in the Express that Son is out with a fractured arm. He shows active on FPL statistics but out on FPL. Got to find a new mid now!!
Yes Kruz, just saw it on BBC. Alli is coming in.
OK, let’s hope there are no more bad news before it starts 😎
I switched to KDB instead, tougher oppo but who knows….
I was looking at City players too but then remembered Pep’s roulette and changed my mind.
Here’s my team guys. Any suggestions?
Looks good Constantine :good:
It’s a gamble for all of as with the remaining players. We have to wait a week with league games between in which anything could happen.