UCL fantasy: Pre-season friendly implications
Going through pre-season friendlies taking into account structure, players, minutes and results. This could give us important indications for UCL fantasy as the brand new campaign edges closer and closer everyday. Readers can also find updates using the official Champions League Twitter account.
UCL fantasy managers will likely be monitoring a lot of the qualified teams during pre-season. With teams changing so much between seasons UCL managers don’t have as many games as they would like to keep tabs on who is playing, game time, and other important factors that could affect how we set up our teams.
Club America v Chelsea
There will be lots of eyes on Chelsea pre-season as a Champions League regular. The blues managed to snatch the cup in season 20/21 and made it all of the way to the quarter finals in the season gone.
Tuchel lined Chelsea up in a back three in their 2-1 win against Club America. Fantasy players will be hoping the back three is used throughout the campaign as wing-backs Chilwell and James will be high on their early shortlist.
Werner poked home the first goal after the ball stumbled off an opposing defender from a Reece James pass. The wing back then passed the ball into his own net producing an own goal. Mason Mount, another player fantasy managers will be interested in produced a stunning effort outside of the box to take the win for Chelsea.
New signings Sterling and Koulibaly did not feature but could soon make an appearance in their next pre-season friendly.
Dortmund v Valencia
Dortmund have had a really busy transfer window with plenty of new signings. New defenders Sule and Schlotterbeck came in along with forwards Adeyemi and Haller. Some bad news did however cloud the atmosphere of the match as you can see below.
Both new defensive signings took part in the match but failed to make an impact like forward Adeyemi. Dortmund lost the game 3-1 with Marco Reus scoring the only goal which was a penalty kick. UCL fantasy managers will be monitoring the Dortmund defence especially after that loss.
Ajax v Salzburg
Both teams had successful UCL campaigns last season with that view being the general consensus. Both teams offered excellent value for money with forwards Haller and Adeyemi, both now Dortmund players. Losing their main men it was always going to be interesting to see how both attacks would shape up in pre-season.
Okafor, a great asset to many last season in fantasy lead the Salzburg attack whilst Tadic became the focal point of the front three consisting of new signing Bergwijn from Tottenahm and young Ghanaian Kudus. The match ended in a dramatic 3-2 victory to Ajax.
Players to watch Kudos and Tadic scored a goal each in the win whilst another player to monitor Chukwubuike Adamu created the assist for the first goal. New left back Owen Wijndal also played another 63 minutes of pre-season, an attacking defender with lots of potential but made no huge contribution to note other than failing to keep a clean sheet.
Sporting v Roma
Sporting are another team that provided great value for money in UCL fantasy last season. The likes of £4.5m defender Pedro Porro and £8m midfielder Pedro Goncalves were amongst those options and both played in the 3-2 victory over Roma.
Goncalves netted a penalty and created the assist for the second goal so will be firmly on the minds of UCL managers.
Barcelona v Inter Miami
A team who have been extremely busy in the transfer window which could attract a lot of interest. Barcelona stormed themselves to a 6-0 win against Inter Miami home to well known player Higuain. New signing Raphinha will likely be hot property when the UCL fantasy game begins. The Brazilian not only started the match but also scored and created two assists in just under 46 minutes.
New defender signing Christensen also featured but second half and successfully helped the Spanish side keep a clean sheet. The match came too early for star signing Lewandowski who has now officially signed. Many of the UCL fantasy community will be eager to see how he does in pre-season.
Looking for more UCL fantasy content? Try our New signings in UCL Fantasy – Fantasy Football Community article.
