Champions League Fantasy Football: Forwards
Thursday, April 27, 2023
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Erling Haaland and Karim Benzema are both all but impossible to overlook as UEFA.com spotlights the players vying for the third forward place in Fantasy squads for the UEFA Champions League semi-finals.
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Forwards come under the spotlight with the UEFA Champions League semi-finals approaching as UEFA.com considers the options for Matchday 11 on #UCLfantasy, presented by Playstation.
The obvious place to start is Erling Haaland (€11.2m), who bounced back from a missed penalty at Bayern on Matchday 10 to score and make it 12 goals in the UEFA Champions League this season – twice as many as any other player still involved. At the time of writing, the Norwegian is on the brink of 50 goals in all competitions in his first season at Manchester City, and he will be the first name on many Fantasy managers' Matchday 11 teamsheets.
City's semi-final opponents Real Madrid boast a lethal striker of their own, Karim Benzema (€10.9m) having been the top scorer in last season's UEFA Champions League with 15 goals. Three of those came against City at this stage and all of Benzema's attacking returns in this season's competition have come in the knockout stage, although it is worth noting he has also been carrying a knock in recent weeks.
With Napoli and the heavily-owned Victor Osimhen eliminated in the quarter-finals, many Fantasy managers will be looking for a third striker. Of the remaining options, Rafael Leão (€8.5m) provided an attacking return in both legs of Milan's quarter-final against Napoli. The Portuguese striker has two Player of the Match awards in his last four games and has collected 46 Fantasy points this season, a total matched by team-mate Olivier Giroud (€8.3m), who was on target on Matchday 10 to make it five goals and two assists in Europe this season.
City rivals Inter possess a number of attacking options that may tempt Fantasy managers for the all-Milan semi-final. Lautaro Martínez (€8.5m) returned 12 points on Matchday 10 – more than any other forward – and has started nine of Inter's ten games this season. The Argentinian would appear to be the Nerazurri's most reliable starting striker, although Edin Džeko (€7.5m), Joaquín Correa (€6.3m) and particularly Romelu Lukaku (€9.0m) are options having all scored in Europe this season.