Champions League Fantasy Football: Matchday 1 Strategy

Getting off to a good start is crucial for success on Champions League Fantasy Football, presented by PlayStation. UEFA.com highlights some notable Matchday 1 strategies that could help managers kick off the season positively.

Extended Matchday 1

Unlike any of the other seven rounds in the league phase, Matchday 1 takes place over three days, which means Fantasy bosses can plan differently compared to those other matchdays. The round consists of 18 league phase fixtures, with the opening six matches taking place on Tuesday 8 September, before a further six games on both Wednesday 9 September and Thursday 10 September respectively.

So how does the Fantasy community best approach a three-day Matchday 1?

Three chances at captaincy

The biggest benefit to Matchday 1 spanning three days is three opportunities to select a high-scoring captain. Should your chosen captain on Tuesday fail to gain the number of points you would have liked, there is a chance to switch the armband to a different player on both Wednesday and then Thursday if still required.

Fantasy managers should therefore ensure that their Matchday 1 squad contains at least one player on each night of games capable of scoring a high number of points, who could be considered a viable captaincy candidate.

Having three chances to choose a Matchday 1 captain also means that Fantasy managers can consider choosing a lesser-owned pick as their captain on Tuesday, knowing that they have two more chances if their differential choice fails to deliver.

Choose the right players to come off the bench

As is always the case in Fantasy, managers are able to make up to four substitutions over the course of the matchday to replace any low-scoring players in their starting 11, with a goalkeeper and three outfield players able to be introduced from the bench.

The smart move on Matchday 1 is to fill the bench with any players in your squad who are set to feature on Thursday. Should a squad have more than three outfield players scheduled to appear on Thursday, some will need to be placed in the starting line-up.

To get the most points from your selected squad, start those players who are set to play early on Matchday 1, meaning Tuesday and Wednesday. You can then swap out the lowest scorers with your chosen bench players.

While these are the key factors to take into account on Matchday 1, there are other important points worth consideration when building a Fantasy squad.

Long-term strategy

With eight matchdays before the knockout stage, planning for multiple fixtures should be considered, especially for Fantasy managers wanting to save the Wildcard and Limitless chips for later in the season.

In order to reduce the chances of needing to make multiple transfers in the first few matchdays, it can be worth looking at the fixture list with a view to selecting players from clubs that you think will perform strongly in the first few rounds of the league phase, both from an attacking and defensive perspective.

Targeting players from clubs that have two home matches in their first three league phase fixtures is one popular tactic when it comes to choosing a squad for Matchday 1.

Alternating goalkeepers

The sensible move for Fantasy managers is to select two goalkeepers who feature on different days across Matchday 1, allowing you to swap them in search of a higher points return if desired. However, those goalkeepers could play on the same day in future matchdays, so choose carefully.

Due to a typically lower point ceiling compared to other positions, Fantasy bosses rarely use free transfers on a goalkeeper, so studying the scheduled league phase fixtures on future matchdays to determine how often certain goalkeepers play on different days is a strategy that could really pay off.