UEFA Champions League Fantasy - Bulinews' Bundesliga insights and tips
As UEFA Champions League action returns to calendars of the Bundesliga’s five representatives in Europe’s most prestigious competition, Bulinews brings you some brand-new content for the onset of UEFA Champions League Fantasy Football with a German twist for the 22/23 campaign!
Check out our player suggestions from Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, and Eintracht Frankfurt who range from the essential to the differential and could help you steal a march on the Fantasy UCL leader boards!
For those of you fantasy fanatics who are familiar with Fantasy Bundesliga and the likes of Fantasy Premier League, point scoring in Fantasy UEFA Champions League is much the same – points are obtained when your players score goals, assist, keep clean sheets, make saves, or win penalties, while aiming to avoid red cards, own goals, or giving away penalties.
Check out our player suggestions from Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, and Eintracht Frankfurt who range from the essential to the differential and could help you steal a march on the Fantasy UCL leader boards!
However, there are two unique differences: for every 3 Balls Recovered by a player (in the form of duels, interceptions, and challenges), 1 point is rewarded which places far greater importance on cheaper defensive minded players like Centre-backs and Defensive Midfielders. Furthermore a 3 point bonus is given out to one player in each game for receiving the UEFA Player of the Match Award.
That’s said, enough of the rules and into the best players that the Bundesliga has to offer:
GOALKEEPERS:
Despite sharing Group F with reigning champions Real Madrid, Peter Gulacsi (Leipzig, €5m) is the preferred choice in goal from German sides. The Hungarian has a favourable opening fixture home to Shakhtar Donetsk, while he could even prove valuable in the long run with Leipzig tipped by many to get out of the group stages in 2nd Place behind Real Madrid, but ahead of Celtic and Donetsk. Frankfurt’s Kevin Trapp (€5m) and Leverkusen’s Lukas Hradecky (€4.5m) are also worth consideration, however less clean sheets are likely for the pair.
DEFENDERS:
Looking at defenders with the chance of a greater attacking return first, Raphaël Guerreiro (Dortmund, €4.5m) has a nice MD1 fixture against Danish champions FC Copenhagen, although the Portuguese star is recovering from illness and could yet miss the match. Bayern Munich’s Benjamin Pavard (€5m) should continue his domestic form in Europe; however, you could hold off until Matchdays 3 and 4 where Bayern play Viktoria Plzen consecutively.
In terms of ball recovery specialists who could rack up points, Lucas Hernandez (Bayern, €5m) recovered 49 balls for 15 points last season, while UCL debutants Nico Schlotterbeck (Dortmund, €5m) and Evan N’Dicka (Frankfurt, €5m) are duel winning machines. Leipzig duo Joško Gvardiol and Mohamed Simakan similarly boast great duel winning stats in the Bundesliga so there’s no reason they can’t do similar in Europe at €4.5m each.
MIDFIELDERS:
Like defenders, cheaper defensive or box-to-box midfielders can act as enablers while also gathering Ball Recovery points consistently. Players like Leverkusen’s Robert Andrich, Dortmund’s Salih Özcan, and Frankfurt’s Djibril Sow do a nice job of winning duels and popping up with the odd goal or assist in Germany, so for €6m each they could free up some budget for elsewhere.
Onto the more offensive midfield threats and where to start other than Christopher Nkunku (Leipzig, €9m). RB’s talisman notched 7 goals, and 2 Player of the Match awards last season making him very much a UCL must have this campaign. Leroy Sané (Bayern, €9m) was essential last year too racking up 6 goals, 6 assists with 84 points in total. Sadio Mané (€10.5m) is a bit pricey but could well play out of position up front for a free scoring Bayern Munich. More mid-priced options include Dortmund’s Marco Reus (€7.5m) and Jude Bellingham (€7m) respectively, while Daichi Kamada (Frankfurt, €7m) and Jamal Musiala (Bayern, €7m) could make the difference if the latter is fit to start after coming off early vs Union Berlin last Saturday. Leverkusen new man Cal Hudson-Odoi (€6m) is the cheapest recommendation with his favourable fixture away to Club Brugge, however it is a group that also includes defensively stout Porto and Atletico Madrid!
FORWARDS:
With other Fantasy UCL forward stars like Haaland, Lewandowski, Benzema, and Mbappe to choose from, budgets are already getting tight, but perhaps these cheaper options might help you out for Matchday 1 at least! While Patrik Schick (Leverkusen, €8.5m) has been out of form in the Bundesliga, don’t be surprised if he pops up with a goal facing Brugge. Out-of-favour Leipzig man Andre Silva (€7.5m) is tipped to start on Tuesday - Europe could be the perfect place for the Portuguese man to re-establish himself. Finally, Anthony Modeste (Dortmund, €7.5m) could be a good one-week punt for Matchday 1 only until they face Copenhagen again on Matchday 6.
Feel free to join our very own Bulinews UCL League here:
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