Champions League Fantasy Football: The Scout squad

The Scout's opening squad for the 2022/23 campaign is a mixture of form players and those who have delivered large returns in years gone by on Fantasy, presented by Playstation.

Goalkeepers

Two of the budget success stories of 2021/22 return in goal. Ajax kick off the competition at home to Rangers and the budget-friendly Remko Pasveer (€5.0m), who kept two clean sheets in last season's competition, is again involved having managed three successive Eredivisie shut-outs. Wednesday's choice is Odysseas Vlachodimos (€5.0m), the second highest-scoring goalkeeper on Fantasy last season with 46 points, a tally that included five clean sheets and nine save points. Maccabi Haifa's visit to Lisbon gives the Greek international an early opportunity to get off the mark in 2022/23.

Defenders

Benfica and Ajax are also represented among the five defenders, given their opening fixtures and their respective records last season. Only four defenders scored higher than the 55 points Nicolás Otamendi (€4.5m) picked up last season, 63 ball recoveries accounting for the 18 of those; from Ajax, meanwhile, the budget-friendly Devyne Rensch (€4.5m) is selected ahead of team-mates Daley Blind and Jurriën Timber.

On the budget front, three Ligue 1 goals and a secure place in the Marseille starting line-up make Nuno Tavares (€4.0m) hard to overlook despite a tough opening fixture at Tottenham, while Ronald Araújo (€5.0m) is likely to start for a Barcelona side who welcome Viktoria Plzeň to the Camp Nou. Nathan Aké (€4.5m) and Manchester City kick off away to Sevilla, who have lost three of their first four Liga games this season.

Midfielders

With three players from each club allowed to be selected in Fantasy squads in the group stage, the contingent from Ajax and Benfica is completed by Steven Bergwijn (€7.0m) and João Mário (€6.0m) respectively. The former has six goals in five Eredivisie appearances for his new club already this season, while João Mário has found the net in Benfica's last three games, four goals in total.

Dejan Kulusevski (€7.5m) is the selection for Tottenham's home game against Marseille, while Christopher Nkunku (€9.0m), whose Leipzig side face Shakhtar Donetsk on Matchday 1, ran up 60 points last season, a total that included seven goals; the Frenchman has supplied four of his club's six Bundesliga strikes in 2022/23. Also among the goals has been new Napoli signing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (€5.5m), who has four in his first five Serie A games for the Serie A club ahead of the visit of a Liverpool side who have managed only two clean sheets in their last ten games in all competitions.

Forwards

As is usually the case on Fantasy, the vast majority of the funds are spent up front with three players costing double-figure fees. The top two Fantasy scorers in 2021/22 were both forwards, Karim Benzema (€11.0m) finishing with 102 points, 11 more than Robert Lewandowski (€11.0m). Benzema's 15 goals last season make him impossible to overlook for Real Madrid visit to Celtic, the Frenchman already having three Liga goals to his name in the current campaign; Lewandowski's switch from Bayern to Barcelona has brought an instant return on the goal front of five from four matches, and the visit of Plzeň presents an opportunity to add to his 56 group stage goals – the same total as Benzema.

Also starting the season at pace is Neymar (€10.0m), who has seven goals and six assists in six Ligue 1 appearances so far and had scored in ten successive games for club and country – 14 goals in all – before drawing a blank at the weekend, when he was a substitute. Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi are just as likely to deliver attacking returns for Paris, who kick off at home to Juventus, but the Brazilian's form make him an appealing inclusion.