#UCL Fantasy Football: Defenders for the knockout rounds

UEFA.com takes a look ahead to this season's UEFA Champions League knockout stages, highlighting some top performers from the campaign so far in each position and weighing up what this means for #UCLfantasy managers. Here, we focus on defenders.

With the UEFA Champions League group stage done and dusted, one defender stands out from the rest and that is Atalanta's Cristian Romero (€5.1m). The Argentinian has racked up 50 #UCLfantasy points over the course of his five appearances at an average of ten points per game. Romero impressed not just for his solid defensive work, which helped the Italian side secure three clean sheets in Group D, but also for his incredible ball-winning numbers. Romero topped the charts for ball recoveries amongst all players in the group stage thanks to an incredible 72 completed recoveries, which brought him 22 additional points, almost half his overall score. With Atalanta set for an enticing round of 16 tie against Real Madrid, Romero is a difficult man to ignore for #UCLfantasy managers.

Also making up the top three highest scoring defenders in #UCLfantasy following the group stage are two left-backs who have each accumulated 46 points thus far, with one shining from an attacking point of view and the other impenetrable from a defensive perspective. Angeliño (€5.4m) of Leipzig registered six attacking returns over the course of the group stage with three goals and three assists, including both goals against İstanbul Başakşehir on Matchday 1 which helped him pick up a 19-point haul. Alongside him with 46 #UCLfantasy points is Zaidu Sanusi (€5.0m), whose Porto side recorded five successive clean sheets with their only goals conceded coming on Matchday 1 away at Manchester City and who found the net himself on Matchday 4 at Marseille. Porto meet Italian champions Juventus in the round of 16, whilst Angeliño's Leigzig face off against Liverpool.

Another high-performing Porto defender from a #UCLfantasy perspective is Chancel Mbemba (€4.8m), who has picked up 38 points. Mbemba earned seven points on four of the six matchdays, marking him down as one of the most reliable defenders in the group stage. Rounding off the top five highest scoring #UCLfantasy defenders going into the round of 16 is Borussia Dortmund's Mats Hummels (€5.2m). The experienced German proved profitable in terms of ball recovery points and clean sheets, recording 54 completed ball recoveries and two clean sheets. He even managed an attacking return, registering an assist on Matchday 6 against Zenit. Hummels will be looking to add to his current score of 37 Fantasy points in the knockout stage, where Sevilla await.

If you’re on the hunt for cheap differential defenders going into Matchday 7, consider Stefan Savić (€4.6m). The Atlético centre-back, owned by just 6% of Fantasy managers, has acquired 29 points so far with two clean sheets and 43 completed ball recoveries. With Chelsea next up, Atlético will have to be at their defensive best and, priced at just €4.6m, better value defenders will be hard to find.