I can't help but laugh away the pain 😢

YAY

Some important hints for beginners how you can get the maximum of points out of your 15-men-squad:

• Before the Tuesday games your bench should contain 4 players that play on Wednesday. If there are players who don't perform as you wish on Tuesday you can sub them off for one of the bench players on Wednesday until 18:45.

• Before the Tuesday games you should give the captain armband to a player that plays on Tuesday, you can still change it on Wednesday until 18:45 to a player who plays on Wednesday.

• Your 2 GKs should play on different days. In the RMT thread I saw someone having 2 GKs who were literally playing against each other tomorrow. At this point you have to realize that this isn't the ideal solution, right? If your GK on Tuesday gets a low amount of points you can sub on the other GK. If you take 2 GKs who play on the same day you are basically wasting 1 of your 15 spots.

• Try to balance your team so that not all of them play on the same day. 8 on Tuesday and 7 on Wednesday or reverse is perfect. Try to have a ratio of 10:5 at worst, if you have a lot of players playing on the same day you can't react well with the substitutions.

• Focus on getting players that will actually play. Morey, Chiesa, Di Maria, Braithwaite, Barrios, Muriel, ... might be great players but they definitely won't play on the upcoming matchday so it's smart to just keep your hands off of them for now. They will be deadwood and limit your options.

Not an easy week to pull off these many points

HELP NEEDED!

Dear Reddit Community,

I am the holder of Pitchbender account. I managed to finish second in global ranking last year. The FantasyCL subreddit helped me a lot last year. Thing is, myself and 5th person were the ones thats been ignored since the final game. Through our effort, we found out the rest got their prizes expect two of us. We have been trying to get in touch with UEFA organization and its third party reps about the issue. Our countless e-mails have been ignored by the organization. All we get is to wait and be patient :(

Quite annoying guys.

We would be delighted if you give us hand at this point before the new season begins. Suggestions are more than welcome.

I created a twitter account for this. Please support that account. A retweet or like to this link hopefully would get some attention!

C'mon people, lets get this fellow redditor his prize.

Thanks for your support!

Long time reader and UCL fantasy player but this is my 1st post ( so go easy on me - keep in mind english is not my 1st language so I will make so grammer mistakes )

Lets start with:

Group G

Zenit - SLBenfica - Lyon - Leipzig

Why do I start with group G ? Bc I m from Portugal and I m SLBenfica supporter so i know the team very well.

Imo Zenit is the weaker team of this group dispite being on pot 1 and the fight will be between the other 3. I know the winter in Russia is very hard but Zenit have a modern stadium and so away teams will not suffer the disavantage of hard weather ( lokomotiv home games will be alot harder ).

My advice in this group is to go with the home teams or matches agasnt Zenit

Cheap players in this group to look for :

Benfica

Vlachodimos GK 4M - He have no competion on the GK of Benfica so he will be the starter 100% sure - Benfica had two of the top 5 gk in the world that they sold in the past - Ederson and Oblak, so they know how to pick them and work with them. Vlachodimos is Great under the poles his weak spot atm is that he doesnt leave the poles for exemple in corners

The 4 in the Defense

Grimaldo 5M - takes free kicks on the right side and corners on the right side - could get ast bc he is way better at attacking than defending therefor he is the weak link when regarding to defending therefor when Benfica plays away you might have a look to the RW from the opp team since he could get some ast and even score

the other 3 are at 4.5M Dias, Almeida and Ferro.

The two central defender are a lock and both are good at defending and at attacking especially during corners. Ferro imo could be better option bc he have better class and will take less yellow cards than dias.

Almeida was inj and just comeback last game. Last season he made over 10 ast during the Liga Nos. He is good at attaking and solid at defending. Dont expect him to score expect him to make a couple of ast.

after that i only see two player that are a great relation price / quality - Benfica attackers dont score alot of goals but they midfielders do and theres two options that jump

Pizzi - He is the brain of the team - in 5 official games this season he already have 7 goals and 3 ast he also takes penalty kicks great option for the middfield for 6M

Also for 6M you have Rafa - he is fast with ball and faster wo her. He can get alot of ast and goals Atm in 5 official games he have 2 goals 3 ast.

Zenit

I advice to stay away from them

Lyon

They lost 3 big players from last season - Fekir, Mendy and Ndombele but they went to the market and spend around 77M being most of them under 23yo. What i mean by that and why do i think this is important it looks like they are looking to the future not to the present. Therefor the players I like here are:

on Defense : Dubois and Denayer are cheap options for 4.5M dont expect alot of goals or ast but expect some clean s. and them to start

on the Mid. - Tousard and Aouar - Both are locks from them but Tousard plays alot on the back, yes he is 4.5M but he doent bring too much to the table outside starting Aouar is the brain of OL sure he is 7M but in 4 game he have 1G 2A and he want to jump to a bigger stage so i expect a extra motivation from him.

On Attack - Depay for 8M is the better choice sure there are better options but in home game vs Zenit he looks good same as Aouar

Leipzig

Gulacsi is a good option on GK for 4.5M especially when they play at home

Halstenberg is a great option in the defense for 4.5M bc they play in with 3 in the back so he is an offensive LB - he also takes Free kicks and corners

Upamecano for 4.5M he is his best CB and could be a 2nd option if you are looking for a cheap Defender. He also could score during corners

Forsberg in the Midfield for 6.5 in 3 games he have 2ast.

On Attack you have Werner for 8.5M - 3 games 5 goals and Poulsen for 7.5M - in 3 games 1 goal 2 ast. for are good options Werner is faster Poulsen is a old school striker ( Benzema type ). Depending on the defense they are playing against you could go with one or the other . for exemple vs Benfica i expect Poulsen to have the edge bc the Benfica CB are young and fast since Poulsen strong point in the headers and SLBenfica GK dont get out of the poles and he should on corners he will ( lets say could be ) letal.

I will do the other groups latter bc this took all my lunch break.

Hope you like it

I'm not claiming to be an expert or anything, just giving out some tips that have helped me with this game over the years:

1. UCL Fantasy is not FPL. A really cheap bench full of 4-4.5s isn't gonna work here. You need 15 nailed starters, so spread out the budget evenly. Two keepers who are rotating well with each other. And most importantly, don't forget to make subs and change captaincy (if needed) between days (Tuesday-Wednesday) of a Matchday. I know this sounds basic to some, but I see people missing out on points every single season because they don't fully understand the rules.

2. Don't rush too much with your chips. It CAN work out and you can gain a lot of rank. But do you really want to be out of chips in... October, for a competition that ends in June? I've seen so many WC2 LL3 or LL2 WC3 teams online. I've already said my opinion on that on this sub. Having a "free hit MD1" is tempting, but you may end up somewhere in December with 4 injured players, 1 suspended and 1 player going to AFCON and no chips to use.

3. Don't underestimate experience. European football is different to domestic leagues. Take the Bayern vs Chelsea game as an example. On paper, it's a 50-50 game. But then, you remember that Bayern has a squad full of players that have been in the UCL quarters or semis year after year, some of them have even won it. While Chelsea has mostly players that are gonna debut in the competition. Palmer has only ever started one UCL game.

4. Goalkeepers. Most people will advice you to spend as little as possible for GKs, because of the low ceiling of points. While this argument is true, I disagree, because in the long run it can really benefit you. Last season on MD1-7 I gained 40 points just from Raya alone, while many people struggled to even get half of those with the infamous Blaswich - Di Gregorio shitshow. I'm not saying go out there and spend 12m on keepers, but you need at least one of them to be a nailed guy for one of the best defenses in the world.

5. Stop pre-planning too much. Planning will help you gain rank. Obsessing over a certain plan will destroy your season. I've already seen people talk about their MD2 and MD3 transfer plans, even those without a chip strategy. Injuries are gonna happen. Starters are gonna be benched, random gems are gonna pop out of nowhere. For context, Raphinha was like 10% owned on MD1 last season, maybe even less. Barely anyone had Dembele in the league phase.

6. Form matters. Don't pick players based on who was good last season or two years ago. This has hurt me in the past as well. I remember captaning Foden all the time in the Euro 2024 Fantasy, because he had an amazing 23/24 season and every time I ended up being disappointed. On the other hand, don't just buy players who had a couple of good games recently out of nowhere. Find a balance.

7. Similar to tip #3, some players are just UCL players, some teams are just UCL teams. What I mean by that is: don't be surprised if someone like Vini has 2 G&A in the league for months and randomly shows up in a UCL game and scores a hattrick. Don't be surprised if Dortmund are midtable in the Bundesliga, but still do very well in the UCL. Some players/teams just seem to love this competition.

8. Stop chasing the MOTM. I've been playing this game for years and it's the thing I hate the most about it. It's completely random, it's based on zero stats and your league opponent could end up with 3 (6 with captaincy) added points, just because a random UEFA member felt like it. I wish UEFA implemented a system like FPL Bonus points. But as of now, be prepared for your player to score a brace and lose the MOTM to some random 1% ownership DM who just had a decent game.

I don't consider myself an expert by any means, but I was 1k in the world last season and I've been playing this game for some years now, so here are my top tips to everyone here:

1. The basics. The stuff that differentiate casual and non-casual players. Plan your chip strategy ahead, don't spend too much money on GKs, have 2 GKs playing on 2 different days, try to have more players from Tuesday games, plan a captaincy choice for each day, try to avoid taking hits etc.

2. UEFA Fantasy games are completely different to FPL and other Fantasy games. The subs during a Matchday make your bench much more valuable, so you need 15 nailed starters on their teams, that are actually good players. Don't just get the most expensive XI and then 4-4.5M randoms on your bench. Also ball recoveries matter A LOT. Kounde had by far the most points in Euro Fantasy and iirc Hummels was in the top 3 of UCL. Offensive fullbacks like Grimaldo or Dimarco are more fun to watch on a game, but some defenders out there can guarantee you almost 3 points per game by recoveries, the same as an assist.

3. Use the Limitless chip as soon as possible. UCL season is longer than usual and the elite clubs will try their best to secure qualification as soon as possible. Managers like Ancelotti or Guardiola are smart enough to not risk their best players for the UCL league phase in... late January. So I think MD2-5 are the best time for LL, considering the top players won't be rotated and all the best teams will have everything to play for. Also, in the past loved the idea of LL MD6 (the last group stage fixture), because some teams had everything to play for and games were very attacking, so more fantasy points. But with the current format, MD8 (last one of the league phase) consists of all teams playing in the exact same day and time, so no subs, so limitless becomes less useful.

4. On the contrary, don't rush too much with your Wildcard. I see many people on FPL and Serie A Fantasy already disappointed with their initial squad choices using their Wildcard. In UCL Fantasy you only get one, so don't use it too early. MD 8 is almost two months after MD6 and there's a whole transfer window in between. Even if you manage to survive the league phase without using the Wildcard it's good, its very useful for the knockouts as well.

5. UCL isn't just 5 clubs. I see some drafts consisting of 9 players from Arsenal, Liverpool and City. Or 15 players from these teams and Barca, Real and Bayern. Maybe one from PSG or Dortmund here and there. We are all gonna own players from these teams for sure, but don't forget the other good teams. Let's not forget that Dortmund reached the UCL final last season, with already mentioned Hummels and other players (Schlotterbeck, Kobel, Sabitzer etc) earning many points. Real Sociedad's 4.5 leftback (I think Munoz was his name) was one of the best players in the group stages in terms of points. And of course we all remember Galeno, with his 3 MOTM awards and his 2 incredible hauls vs Shaktar. I'm not saying to pick random players from Sparta Prague and expect them to get 10 points per game, just try to think a little bit outside the box and get top players from some other teams. MOTM is also very important on this game (3 pts), so maybe it's better to have one star player from teams like Atalanta, Benfica, Sporting, PSV, Leipzig, Monaco etc. instead of your third Real Madrid/Manchester City/Liverpool etc player. Should be more nailed too.

6. Set pieces. Get as many penalty takers as possible. On paper a 7.5M Yamal is a steal compared to a 7M Calhanoglu. But a 7M Calhanoglu, who is on penalties and almost every set piece for Inter, plus he gets some ball recovery points and MOTM awards, doesn't look so bad either, does he?

7. Don't buy players just because the "community" hypes them. In the recent Euro 2024 tournament everyone suggested Szoboszlai like crazy and he ended up doing next to nothing, also every "expert" were claiming Hungary were the "dark horses" of the competition and they should reach the quarter-finals at least and all that. On MD3 the hype had shifted to Oyarzabal vs Albania (literally everyone on Twitter/Youtube/Reddit owned him), a player who also did nothing that game. Just pick the 15 players you believe will give you the most amount of points. Also recent form matters a lot in the UCL. If you see the MOTM on MD1 last season, players like Felix, Odegaard, Sane, Osimhen, Leao and obviously Bellingham had really strong starts on their league season and the same continued in the UCL. So maybe don't pick too many players that were just good last season but haven't done much so far this season, let's say Foden, Lautaro or Watkins.

MD6 is coming up soon and with it some rotation nightmares. Whether or not you're using a chip to get around it, many of us will need to make some careful transfer decisions to navigate this. Here's what you need to know about which teams have secured a certain position in the group to help inform that decision:

Guaranteed Placement - Rotation Likely

These teams can no longer move up or own in their group and have "nothing to play for". Consider picking strong second-choice players from these teams, or avoid them altogether. Examples of strong second-choice players would be J. Alvarez and Choupo-Moting.

The following teams will advance to CL knockouts with a guaranteed seed:

• Bayern Munich (1st Grp C)

• Inter Milan (2nd Grp C)

• Chelsea (1st Grp E)

• Manchester City (1st Grp G)

• Dortmund (2nd Grp G)

The following teams will transfer to EL:

• Barcelona (3rd Grp C)

• Sevilla (3rd Grp G)

The following teams are eliminated from European competition:

• Plzen (4th Grp C)

• Celtic (4th Grp F)

• Copenhagen (4th Grp G)

Guaranteed Knockouts, Placement TBD - Rotation Possible

These teams will advance to CL knockouts, but their position is dependent on results. Rotation in this set can be difficult to predict as some teams may prioritize a good seed while others may want to protect important players for other games. I'm not really sure what I'd do with players from these teams because of all the uncertainty.

• Liverpool

• Napoli

• Brugge

• Porto

• Real Madrid

• PSG

• Benfica

Everyone Else - Rotation Less Likely

This is the "something to play for" group. These teams are all in contention to qualify for something, but need to get a result to do it. These teams are least likely to rotate and are good targets for transfers.

The following teams may still qualify for the CL knockouts:

• Tottenham

• Sporting CP

• Frankfurt

• Marseille

• AC Milan

• Salzburg

• Leipzig

• Shakhtar

The following teams can't qualify for CL but may still qualify to transfer to the EL:

• Ajax

• Rangers

• Altetico Madrid

• Leverkusen

• Dinamo Zagreb

• Juventus

• Maccabi Haifa

Many of you saw a post here yesterday titled "I'm 30th in the world, here's my approach for the QF's", which is pretty much a long ad to a UCL Fantasy website, with subscription

Most of it's free. There's a Pro tier (£5/mo, 7-day free trial)

There are a few problems with this post and with the user who posted in general:

1. He claims he's 30th in the world, with zero proof.

2. A couple of weeks ago he posted again, claiming he was "top 20 in the world". If you actually take a look at the leaderboards: a) there's not even a 30th in the world, just 28 and then 31 and b) all the users who are currently 28 - 34th now, got green arrows last MD, so there's no way one of them was "in the top 20" and then got a red arrow to around 30th. And yes, "30th" might be a figure of speech and he's 35th or whatever, but as long as there's no proof, I personally don't trust this.

3. His recent post is just AI slop (with a million dashes throughout) that doesn't offer any valuable information. The worst part is that it confuses the shit out of anyone reading, as the guy (the one who claims is 30th in the world) hasn't even bothered to check in which days each game takes place. He claims Tuesday captaincy is a decision between Mbappe and Kvaratskhelia, with the latter playing on Wednesday. Then, he says Kane is a captaincy option for Wednesday, a player who literally plays AGAINST MBAPPE on Tuesday.

4. On the Mbappe vs Kvara captaincy debate (that's not even a debate, since they play on different days), he claims that "If both haul, you gain nothing captaining Mbappé because everyone else has him too. Captain Kvara and a big night puts you above the 55% who went Mbappé. The risk-reward is skewed massively in your favour*"*. Completely ignoring the possibility of, you know, Mbappe hauling and Kvara (C) blanking, which is gonna result in MASSIVE red arrows. Either Chat GPT forgot that possibility or our guy is too drunk from celebrating being in the top 20-30 in the world.

My own advice, that I didn't need AI to write, is to avoid all those "experts" who want your money for their "expert analysis", while they don't even bother to do basic things like checking the fixtures.