How should Champions League Fantasy Football managers approach the round of 16 and beyond?

With the UEFA Champions League round of 16 coming up, UEFA.com provides some key advice for managers looking to plan for the next phase of UCL Fantasy, presented by PlayStation.

What is the format for the round of 16?

• The round of 16 consists of eight two-legged ties taking place on Matchdays 11 and 12.

• The top eight teams from the league phase have been drawn against the eight qualifiers from the knockout phase play-offs.

What does this mean for Fantasy managers?

• The Fantasy deadline for Matchday 11 is Tuesday 10 March at 18:45 CET – the kick-off time for Galatasaray vs Liverpool.

• Fantasy bosses have been given unlimited free transfers ahead of Matchday 11 and there are also three free transfers before the second legs on Matchday 12.

• A maximum of four players can be selected from any one club – the same as in the knockout phase play-offs.

• Neither the Wildcard nor the Limitless chip can be used on Matchday 11, but either can be used on Matchday 12 if available.

• Both round of 16 matchdays take place across a Tuesday and Wednesday, meaning there are two opportunities to select a high-performing captain each time.

• The likes of Harry Kane, Lamine Yamal and Erling Haaland are again Fantasy options having not participated in the knockout phase play-offs due to their respective clubs qualifying directly for the round of 16.

How to plan for the round of 16 and beyond

For managers that no longer have chips remaining, this is the last time that unlimited transfers will be on offer this season. With that in mind, Fantasy bosses may want to think strategically about which teams are likely to progress to the quarter-finals and beyond.

Your free transfer allowance is precious when it comes to the knockout stage – and remember none can be carried forward to the next matches – so selecting players from teams you think will advance should help minimise the need to use those transfers on moving out eliminated players from your squad as the tournament progresses.

The ideal situation is that you retain a squad of 15 active players for as long as possible, without needing to incur point deductions for additional transfers. A full squad provides more flexibility and a greater chance of maximising points when it comes to both manual substitutions and captaincy changes.

While there will be a temptation to focus on options from teams playing at home on Matchday 11, Fantasy managers should remember that the fixtures will be reversed on Matchday 12, when there will only be three free transfers available with which to rebalance your team.

Those that still have either the Wildcard or Limitless chips available (or both!) perhaps don't need to think as long term with their Matchday 11 squad selection, and can instead choose to focus on the fixtures directly ahead of them.

For those considering Galatasaray and Liverpool players, it would be wise to wait until those starting line-ups are released prior to the Matchday 11 deadline.

What happened in 2024/25?

Somewhat surprisingly, there were only two home wins on Matchday 11 in 2024/25, while five away teams were victorious in the first leg of their respective round of 16 ties.

Clean sheets were hard to come by last year, with only four of the 16 teams recording shutouts on Matchday 11 – Liverpool, Barcelona, Bayern München and Inter. As is often the case with UCL Fantasy, it may prove to be a better strategy to focus the majority of funds on defenders with attacking potential, rather than targeting clean sheet points.

Some familiar names excelled at this stage last season, Bayern's Kane scoring three times across both legs against fellow Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen. Raphinha matched that tally while club-mate Yamal was on target in the second leg of Barcelona's 4-1 aggregate success against Benfica. All three players should prove to be popular Fantasy picks once again this time around.