Champions League Fantasy Football: The Scout squad for Matchday 9

With unlimited transfers for the knockout phase play-off first leg on UEFA Champions League Matchday 9, managers on #UCLfantasy – presented by Playstation – have the opportunity to totally overhaul their squads.

Bayern München provide four players for the first Fantasy squad of this season's knockout phase and Paris Saint-Germain three, with Real Madrid, Juventus and Atalanta among the clubs also represented.

Goalkeepers

Clean sheets tend to be rarer in the Champions League knockout phase, so a goalkeeper at the price of Michele Di Gregorio (€4.2m) can be a useful investment in more ways than one. The Juventus No1 has picked up six Fantasy points in each of his last three appearances ahead of the home leg against a PSV Eindhoven side that lost 3-1 in Turin on Matchday 1.

Should Di Gregorio not keep a clean sheet on Tuesday, Manuel Neuer (€5.9m) will come in. Bayern München visit Celtic having won eight of their last nine matches in all competitions but having lost three of their four away Champions League games this season, conceding nine goals – so Anatoliy Trubin of Benfica or Atalanta's Rui Patrício are viable alternatives for Wednesday with away games at Monaco and Club Brugge respectively.

Defenders

In defence, given the potential absence of clean sheets, the smart move may be to prioritise players who score highly in ball recoveries – as close as Fantasy gets to a guarantee of points. Willian Pacho (€4.8m) made 71 in the league phase, more than any other player in any position and enough for 22 extra Fantasy points ahead of the first leg of Paris Saint-Germain's all-Ligue 1 tie at Brest.

Isak Hien (€4.9m) has scored 20 extra points thanks to 64 ball recoveries with his Atalanta team at Club Brugge, while Minjae Kim (€5.2m) has 63 recoveries before Bayern play at Celtic. Also scoring highly in this category is Nicolás Otamendi (€5.0m), who has 38 Fantasy points with 16 from ball recoveries before Benfica's game at Monaco; the five defenders are completed by Federico Gatti (€5.0m), who has three clean sheets and 44 ball recoveries as Juventus face PSV.

Midfielders

Paris were 5-2 winners at knockout phase play-off opponents Brest on 1 February with Ousmane Dembélé (€8.4m) scoring a hat-trick – among his ten goals in his last five appearances – and Bradley Barcola (€7.0m) providing an assist; the latter has five goals and six assists in his last eight appearances in all competitions.

Jamal Musiala (€9.0m) has six attacking returns in this season's Champions League for a Bayern side that have 21 goals in their eight matches in all competitions in 2025, while Christian Pulišić (€7.5m) set up both goals in Milan's weekend win that precedes Wednesday's game at Feyenoord. Jude Bellingham (€9.0m) is picked for Real Madrid's game at Manchester City having collected 28 Fantasy points in his last three Champions League appearances thanks to two goals and two assists.

Forwards

There are the usual selection of high-profile options up front with Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, Vinícius Júnior, Serhou Guirassy, Viktor Gyökeres, Santiago Giménez – against the Feyenoord side he left for Milan in the winter transfer window – and Gonçalo Ramos among the players making a case for inclusion. Harry Kane (€10.7m) is selected despite only two goals in his last six Champions League appearances – he has scored in his last four games in all competitions, six goals in all.

Also in a rich vein of scoring form is the bargain-priced Mateo Retegui (€5.5m), whose four goals at the weekend made it nine in eight games for Atalanta in 2025. Benfica's Vangelis Pavlidis is another strong contender after seven goals in his last five matches, but Randal Kolo Muani (€7.1m) after his first three appearances for Juventus brought five goals, including two at the weekend, is the final pick.