Champions League Fantasy Football: The Scout squad for Matchday 8

The Scout's 15-man squad for the second legs of the round of 16 ties features no fewer than eight players from English clubs with Virgil van Dijk, Reece James and İlkay Gündoğan among those selected while Mohamed Salah, Robert Lewandowski, Sébastien Haller and Dušan Vlahović are all viable captaincy contenders.

Goalkeepers

Edouard Mendy (€6.4m) has delivered six points on five of his six appearances in this season's UEFA Champions League, including in the first leg against LOSC Lille, and is backed for another clean sheet when holders Chelsea travel to northern France to defend a 2-0 advantage.

Should the Senegalese international concede for only the second time in this season's competition, André Onana (€4.5m) is ready to step in. The Cameroon international has featured in only one of Ajax's seven games so far, and picked up only two Fantasy points from that outing on Matchday 5, but with Remko Pasveer sidelined is in line to start at home to Benfica with the tie poised at 2-2. The Dutch champions' air of defensive impregnability might have slipped in recent weeks – they have conceded four goals in their last two Eredivisie matches, as many as in the previous 16 combined – but will look to recapture the form that brought them two clean sheets from their three group games in Amsterdam.

Defenders

Ajax and Chelsea also provide the backbone of the five-man defence, in the shape of attacking full-backs from both sides. Noussair Mazraoui (€5.2m), as one of the few remaining budget starters left on Fantasy, was always going to be a strong contender even before his eight-point haul on Matchday 7, an assist helping to mitigate the two goals Ajax conceded. At the same price, Marcos Alonso (€5.2m) has picked up three clean sheets from his six appearances in this season's competition including a six-point haul in the round of 16 first leg and is always capable of an attacking return, while the fit-again Reece James (€5.6m) provided a goal and an assist at Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday to remind Fantasy managers of his value at both ends of the field.

Budget constrictions prevent the introduction of either Trent Alexander-Arnold or Andy Robertson, so their Liverpool team-mate Virgil van Dijk (€6.1m) gets the nod instead with the 2019 winners welcoming Inter to Anfield holding a 2-0 lead. Aymeric Laporte (€5.1m) and Manchester City have an even greater cushion for the visit of Sporting CP having won 5-0 in Lisbon, but Pep Guardiola's side are unlikely to let up and having collected seven points from the first leg, the centre-back will be looking for another clean sheet at the very least.

Midfielders

Although budget constraints are increasingly tight, there's the cash to invest in the most expensive midfielder on the game, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah (€11.0m). The Egyptian has delivered 23 Fantasy points from his last three appearances to make it 60 for the season and has eight goals in this season's UEFA Champions League, blanking only once. Another with goalscoring pedigree in Europe this season is Villarreal's Arnaut Danjuma (€7.0m) who has four to his name including two at Atalanta on Matchday 6 as the Spanish side return to Italy to take on Juventus.

The other three midfielders are something of a mixed bag. Given their first-leg lead, picking any Manchester City player represents something of a gamble but İlkay Gündoğan (€7.1m) was restricted to a late substitute appearance in the derby win against Manchester United on Sunday so could well start at home to Sporting. N'Golo Kanté (€5.5m) provided a rare attacking return with his first-leg assist against LOSC, but the Chelsea man may once again boost his Fantasy total with ball recoveries, while 13 of the 30 points Nicolas Seiwald (€5.3m) has collected this season have come via ball recoveries and he is likely to be busy in that regard once again as Salzburg travel to Bayern.

Forwards

There was first-leg disappointment for the sizeable ownership of Robert Lewandowski (€12.1m) and Sébastien Haller (€9.4m) who picked up only six points between them despite the latter scoring in Ajax's draw at Benfica. However, with favourable home returns against Salzburg and Benfica respectively, and with both enjoying such fine seasons – Lewandowski has 12 goals in his last 11 Bayern appearances, although only two in his last four, while Haller has hit nine in seven games since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations – it would be a brave Fantasy manager who went against the grain and left either out.

The forwards are completed by Dušan Vlahović (€9.5m), who struck inside the first minute of his UEFA Champions League debut at Villarreal and has four goals in his eight matches for Juventus since his January arrival. The Serbia international has 20 Serie A goals this season for Fiorentina and Juve combined, just one short of his total for the whole of 2020/21, and his new club will look to him to provide the goals as they aim to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in three years.