UCL Fantasy Football: Wednesday lessons

UEFA.com pours over Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League action and runs through the key talking points for #UCLfantasy managers.

Matchday 4 began with a bang as Mönchengladbach once again put Shakhtar Donetsk to the sword, beating the Ukrainian champions 4-0 even without the services of forward Alassane Pleá. Four different players got on the scoresheet with the standout from a #UCLfantasy perspective being midfielder Lars Stindl (€8.0m), who registered both a goal and an assist to pick up 12 points. Also in Group B, Real Madrid recorded a 2-0 win away to Internazionale, their second successive UEFA Champions League victory over the Italian side, and just as pleasing was the return to the scoresheet of Eden Hazard (€9.4m), who converted a penalty to bag his first goal for Zinédine Zidane’s team in this competition.

The big shock of Wednesday night came at Anfield where Group D leaders Liverpool were beaten 2-0 by Atalanta, with the Serie A outfit once again proving they boast a number of attractive #UCLfantasy options in all positions. One of their stars of last season’s competition Josip Iličić (€8.9m) opened the scoring in just his second start in this year’s group stage, accruing eight points, whilst defender Robin Gosens (€5.5m) shone at both ends after picking up both a goal and a clean sheet to rack up 13 points for his delighted 3% ownership.

Elsewhere, wins for both Manchester City and Porto mean they are all but certain to finish as the top two sides in Group C. Phil Foden (€7.0m) scored the only goal for Josep Guardiola’s men at Olympiacos, whilst Sérgio Oliveira (€6.6m) found the net for the third straight group game as Porto triumphed 2-0 against Marseille in France, with defender Zaidu Sanusi (€4.6m) also on target. Oliveira has now acquired 26 #UCLfantasy points so far this term, whilst Sanusi has done even better, earning a whopping 29 points with his goal on Wednesday adding to three clean sheets.

Despite being reduced to ten men following the sending-off of midfielder Marc Roca, reigning UEFA Champions League winners Bayern secured their safe passage to the knockout stage with a 3-1 win at home to Salzburg. Hansi Flick’s team had to be thankful for Manuel Neuer (€6.0m) in the victory, as the goalkeeper recorded ten saves to keep the visitors down to just one goal.