Champions League Fantasy Football: The Scout squad for Matchday 9

The Scout's squad for Matchday 9 is made up of a defence largely based around players from Benfica and Napoli while the attacking thread is supplied by Manchester City pair Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland and Vinícius Júnior and Karim Benzema of Real Madrid on #UCLfantasy, presented by Playstation.

Goalkeepers

It's as you were in goal with Alex Meret (€5.0m) of Napoli and Benfica's Odysseas Vlachodimos (€5.0m) both selected again having also been the picks for both legs of the round of 16. Meret outscored his opponent then, providing two clean sheets and 12 Fantasy points to his Benfica counterpart's one clean sheet and eight points, and the Napoli man also holds the edge over the course of the season with 34 Fantasy points to Vlachodimos's 25.

Meret may have shipped four goals at home to Champions League quarter-final opponents AC Milan on 2 April but had kept seven clean sheets in eight appearances before that game; indeed, Friday's 2-1 Serie A win at Lecce was the first goal he had conceded in eight away games in all competitions. Vlachodimos, meanwhile, has let in only eight goals in his last 18 games for club and country, a run that includes 13 clean sheets.

Defenders

Such are the fine defensive records of both Benfica and Napoli that each provides two players for the back line for the quarter-final first legs. The Serie A leaders' captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo (€5.2m) is almost a mandatory pick as the highest-scoring player left on the game in all positions on 65 points, 23 of which came in the round of 16; his Napoli team-mate Kim Min-jae (€4.6m) has a less eye-catching 40 points in total but delivered two eight-point returns on Matchdays 7 and 8.

Benfica's representatives in the back line are Alejandro Grimaldo (€5.4m), whose 59 Fantasy points is second only to Di Lorenzo among defenders and, with Alexander Bah having picked up an injury in Friday's Portuguese Liga defeat at home to Porto, the budget-friendly António Silva (€4.3m).

The fifth member of the back line is Real Madrid's Nacho (€5.0m), likely to make another appearance at left-back for the holders at home to a Chelsea side who are three games without a goal in all competitions and who have failed to scored in 13 of their last 22 matches.

Midfielders

Real Madrid also have two representatives among the five midfielders, both of whom are among the four top-scoring Fantasy players in their position. Vinícius Júnior (€10.1m) leads the way on 63 points, 40 of which have come in his last four outings; the Brazilian also has two goals and three assists in his last three games in all competitions.

Federico Valverde (€6.9m) is selected ahead of Manchester City's Jack Grealish for budget reasons, with the Uruguayan on 12 goals in all competitions this season, albeit none for Madrid since 18 February. Kevin De Bruyne (€10.5m) is the City pick instead; the Belgian is only 13th on Fantasy points totals among the remaining midfielders but delivered 11 in the round of 16 second leg and has a goal and three assists in his last two Premier League appearances.

João Mário (€6.4m) is another whose inclusion is almost automatic, the Benfica man having delivered 46 Fantasy points across his last five appearances at an average of just over nine per game and scoring in six of the Portuguese Liga leaders' last ten league matches, ten goals in all. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (€5.9m) is in similar form for Napoli, with five goals in his last nine Serie A appearances and ten league assists this season.

Forwards

The forwards are a fairly straightforward selection. Erling Haaland (€11.0m) is in 61% of Fantasy teams and has 53 points, a record 25 of them coming on Matchday 8 when the Norwegian scored five times; Haaland has 11 goals in his last four Manchester City appearances.

Karim Benzema (€10.7m) is similarly impossible to overlook with six goals in his last three Real Madrid games and 13 goals in his last eight Champions League knockout games, including four against quarter-final opponents Chelsea at the same stage of last season.

Gonçalo Ramos (€9.0m) completes the forwards line-up, the Benfica man having scored six times in as many games for the Portuguese side ahead of Inter Milan's visit to Lisbon.