UCL Fantasy Football: The Scout squad

With the halfway point of the group stage in sight, the latest Scout squad relies heavily on players who have a home game on Matchday 3; only two of the 15 members of the squad are away this week.

Goalkeepers

Two keepers identically priced with favourable home fixtures on Matchday 3 are selected. Porto's Agustín Marchesín (€5.0m) faces a Marseille side who have lost their last 11 UEFA Champions League fixtures, with the Portuguese side having kept a clean sheet in last week's 2-0 home defeat of Olympiacos; should he be needed, Wednesday's selection is Edouard Mendy (€5.0m), whose Chelsea side welcome his former club Rennes to Stamford Bridge. Mendy has conceded one goals in his six games for the Blues, and has kept five successive clean sheets.

Defenders

Chelsea's recent defensive fortitude means a place for summer signing Ben Chilwell (€5.5m) among the five defenders, whose number also includes Manchester City's Kyle Walker (€5.5m) with a home game against Olympiacos in the offing. Favourable home fixtures for Sevilla and Barcelona mean places for Diego Carlos (€5.0m) – joint third among the highest-scoring defenders with 18 #UCLfantasy points – and Sergi Roberto (€5.5m) as Krasnodar and Dynamo Kyiv come to Spain. Atalanta, in contrast, face a Liverpool side that have won their first two Group D games, but Cristian Romero (€4.7m) still warrants inclusion having picked up ten of his 19 Fantasy points this season thanks to ball recoveries.

Midfielders

Barcelona and Manchester City also provide a member of midfield apiece; Ansu Fati (€8.2m) has scored four goals in five Liga starts this season and was on target at the Camp Nou on UEFA Champions League Matchday 1, so is in good shape for the visit of Dynamo; similarly, Ferran Torres (€7.5m) has scored in each of his first two UEFA Champions League games for City and is well placed to make it three in a row at home to Olympiacos. Atlético's João Félix (€9.0m) is also in form with four goals in his last two games, including two at home to Salzburg last week, while Real Madrid's Casemiro (€6.0m) and Wílmar Barrios (€4.5m) of Zenit have both scored well in the ball recovery stakes and should guarantee reasonable returns in that regard with the possibility of further attacking points, particularly from Casemiro.

Forwards

Barcelona complete a full quota of three players in the Scout squad thanks to Lionel Messi (€12.1m), who found the net in each of the first two games – all four of his goals for club and country in 2020/21 have come from the penalty spot, meaning a first from open play is well overdue. Moise Kean (€6.0m) is likely to start up front for Paris Saint-Germain in the injury-enforced absence of Neymar and could capitalise at Leipzig, adding to his two goals on Matchday 2; the third striking berth was a toss-up between Chelsea's Timo Werner and Karim Benzema (€10.5m), the Madrid man getting the nod to avoid having all three forwards playing on the same day.