Champions League Fantasy Football: The Scout squad for Matchday 6

Picking a squad for the concluding round of group fixtures on #UCLfantasy, presented by Playstation, is always a tricky prospect as those clubs who are already through to the round of 16, or who have been eliminated, frequently take the opportunity to give a chance to their squad members whose playing time might usually be limited. With that in mind, the Scout's final squad for the group stage is built around players whose clubs still have work to do on Matchday 6.

Goalkeepers

Ajax's Remko Pasveer has been one of the budget stars of the group stage, picking up 18 points from the first four matches but was rested for Matchday 5 with André Onana (€4.5m) taking his place. With first place in Group C already secured, the Cameroon international could well be in line for another start as section runners-up Sporting CP come to Amsterdam.

Should Onana either not feature or fail to keep a clean sheet on Tuesday, Wednesday's selection is Odisseas Vlachodimos (€5.1m), whose Benfica side are at home to a Dynamo Kyiv team that has scored only once in their first five group fixtures. With the Portuguese side needing a win to have any prospect of pipping Barcelona to second place in Group E, they are sure to be fully focused on keeping out their Ukrainian visitors as their initial task.

Defenders

Ajax and Benfica are also represented among the five defenders, the Dutch champions providing Lisandro Martínez (€5.1m) who has picked up 27 points across the last four matches while Benfica's Nicolás Otamendi (€5.0m) is the joint third highest-scoring defender on Fantasy this season. Level with the Argentinian on 33 points is Reinildo Mandava (€5.2m), who earned ten points on Matchday 5 and whose LOSC Lille team need a point away at Wolfsburg having managed three shut-outs in their first five Group G games.

Juventus centre-back Matthijs de Ligt (€5.6m) has picked up only four points in the last two matchdays but the Italian side conclude Group H at home to Malmö, who have managed only one goal in their five games and none away from home. The back line is completed by budget option Kostas Tsimikas (€4.6m), who may start again for Group B winners Liverpool away at AC Milan having scored seven points on both Matchday 4 and 5.

Midfielders

While Leroy Sané (53 points) and Mohamed Salah (45) have both scored heavily in the group stage so far, neither is guaranteed to play on Matchday 6 with their respective sides secure at the top of their sections, so attention falls on Leipzig's Christopher Nkunku (€8.2m). The French midfielder is the top scorer on the game overall with 57 points and is set to start at home to Manchester City, against whom he scored a hat-trick on Matchday 1.

Also in form is Sporting CP's Pedro Gonçalves (€8.1m), who has picked up 18 points in each of the last two games, and Mario Pašalić (€7.9m), who has seven goals in his last eight games for club and country and whose Atalanta side face a must-win final-day encounter against Villarreal. The Spanish side's Arnaut Danjuma (€6.6m) has been a consistent performer across the group stage, while Salzburg's Nicolas Seiwald (€5.0m) has amassed almost half of his 21 points via ball recoveries ahead of the decisive visit of Sevilla.

Forwards

Sébastien Haller, Robert Lewandowski and Cristiano Ronaldo have led the way up front, all finding the net in all five group games to date, but with their sides having already made sure of first place, it would be little surprise to see one or more of them rested on Matchday 6. Instead, the fit-again Erling Haaland (€11.0m), who has missed three of Dortmund's last four Group C games, is backed to replicate his Matchday 1 goal against Beşiktaş as the teams bow out of this season's UEFA Champions League.

Atalanta will hope not to join Dortmund and Beşiktaş in making an early exit and Duván Zapata (€9.8m) will be key if they are to avoid that fate at home to Villarreal; the Colombian has picked up 17 points in his two previous games in the competition in Bergamo this season. Jonathan David (€7.8m) has delivered six points in both his last two Group G matches and, having provided 11 of LOSC's 23 Ligue 1 goals in 2021/22, is their likeliest scorer in their pivotal trip to Wolfsburg.