MD6 is one of the more difficult matchdays to navigate in UCL Fantasy.
Many teams will have nothing left to play and will therefore rotate when they have nothing left to play.
This article will focus on players that have a high potential for points and a low risk of rotation.
Diogo Costa
- Price: €5.1m
- Picked by: 5%
- Fixture: Atletico Madrid (H)
Although Porto are already qualified, they will field their best 11 to finish first in an attempt to avoid teams like Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, and Man City in the round of 16.
After struggling at the beginning of the group stage, Porto impressed during their last games and beat Club Brugge 4-0 in MD5. The Belgian champions hadn’t lost a game before that.
Atletico Madrid have been in poor form this season but could need a result to secure third place and their place in the Europa League.
The game is an early kick-off which means fantasy managers can make sure that Costa is starting. It’s almost certain that he will be the man between the posts after saving penalties in 3 (!) consecutive games.
Porto have a 31% chance of keeping a clean sheet and if Atletico get a penalty, managers who don’t own Costa will be hiding behind the sofa. Accordingly, Costa is once again our keeper pick for this week
Alejandro Grimaldo
- Price: €5.3m
- Picked by: 13%
- Fixture: Maccabi Haifa (a)
Benfica are unbeaten in their group and can even secure first place if they score enough goals or PSG don’t win against Juventus.
Consequently, they will be motivated to win by as many as possible. Maccabi Haifa’s last match revealed that their defense is quite surmountable, although PSG have the capability to do that against a lot of teams.
Benfica only kept one clean sheet in the group stage so far – in the first leg against M. Haifa. This time they are given a 35% chance to keep one.
Additionally, Grimaldo has offensive qualities that can result in fantasy points, as evidenced by his 5 goals and 5 assets in 29 league games last season.
So far he has one goal and two assists in the Champions League. Two of his returns were in the first leg against M.Haifa where he got a 20-point haul.
Ivan Perisic
- Price: €6.0m
- Picked by: 7%
- Fixture: Marseille (a)
Spurs face Marseille in a match that they cannot afford to lose. They have kept 2 clean sheets in the Champions League so far and are given a 30% chance for another one.
Perisic was rested on the weekend and is therefore likely to start in the Champions League.
In the 17 games he featured in this season, he has 6 assists. His xGI per 90 of 0.39 highlights his point potential for MD6.
Joao Mario
- Price: €6.0m
- Picked by: 3%
- Fixture: Maccabi Haifa (a)
As mentioned above, Benfica against Maccabi Haifa is a fixture worth targeting. The Israeli team have conceded 15 goals in their 5 previous Champions League matches.
Mario is nailed in Benfica’s starting 11 and is one of the best penalty-takers around.
His non-penalty expected goal involvement rate per 90 of 0.49 across all competitions which suggests that his point potential is not just limited to penalties.
Christopher Nkunku
- Price: €9.0m
- Picked by: 9%
- Fixture: Shakhtar Donetsk (a)
Leipzig need at least one point against Shakhtar to secure a qualification spot. If they win the game and Real Madrid don’t, they would even top the group.
Thus, Leipzig will be highly motivated for this game and should be targeted by fantasy managers.
Nkunku has already scored 9 goals in his 12 league matches. However, he hasn’t reached the same output level in the Champions League, where he scored twice in 5 matches, but his underlining data has been great.
Fantasy managers can expect a goal involvement in every second game and that’s not even taking into account potential penalties.
Being the talisman of the team, Nkunku is an excellent pick and owners get the advantage of being able to see the lineup ahead of time on Wednesday.
Nkunku has a 38% chance of scoring in MD6, while teammate Timo Werner has a 40% chance.
Harry Kane
- Price: €10.5m
- Picked by: 3%
- Fixture: Marseille (a)
As mentioned, Spurs need to give 100% in this game which makes it very interesting from a fantasy perspective. Spurs are not in the best shape but if they score, Kane is most likely going to be involved.
Kane only scored one goal in the Champions League so far but he has been scoring regularly in the Premier League where he found the net in 10 out of 13 games.
In the Premier League, Kane has a xGI of exactly 1 per 90 minutes.
Fantasy managers who want to transfer out Haaland due to his rotation risk should definitely consider Kane, who is nailed to play 90 minutes.
He has a 40% chance of scoring in MD6.
Lionel Messi
- Price: €10.5m
- Picked by: 14%
- Fixture: Juventus (a)
PSG need a win against Juventus to make sure that they finish first in the group.
With Neymar suspended, Kylian Mbappe and Messi share the task of scoring the goals.
Assuming most managers already own Mbappe, bringing in Messi could be an excellent differential punt for MD6.
Ahead of the World Cup, Messi’s form is peaking. He is actually outperforming his strike partners in regard to his expected output.
With xGI of 0.95 per 90, it would surprise no one if he scores against Juventus who have not managed to keep a single clean sheet in the group stage so far.
Messi has a 38% chance of scoring in MD6.