UCL Fantasy Football: The Scout squad

There is a strong representation from English clubs among the Scout's selection for the round of 16 second legs, with Manchester City and Chelsea both featuring particularly heavily.

Goalkeepers

Two English teams with a lead to defend back on home soil provide the goalkeepers – Manchester City's Ederson (€6.0m) has kept five successive clean sheets in the UEFA Champions League and, with his side holding a 2-0 first-leg advantage against Borussia Mönchengladbach, is well placed to continue his run of 526 minutes without conceding in the competition. Chelsea's Edouard Mendy (€5.2m) can boast similarly impressive statistics – the summer signing has been beaten only once in his six tournament matches for the London club.

Defenders

Those defensive stats for Manchester City and Chelsea mean that both are also represented in the back line. There are a number of excellent options for each, but Antonio Rüdiger (€4.5m) is the Chelsea representative thanks in no small part to his budget price – a similar glance over the City squad makes Oleksandr Zinchenko (€4.6m) another money-saving pick. Atalanta's Cristian Romero (€5.3m) is again included despite a daunting trip to Real Madrid given his ball-recovery scores – making clean-sheet points a bonus in his case – while Madrid's match-winner at Atalanta, Ferland Mendy (€5.5m) gets the nod because of his side's strong defensive record. The fifth and final defender is Porto's Zaidu Sanusi (€5.2m), who is both favourably priced and scoring impressively in this season's UEFA Champions League – the full-back has already picked up 49 points, the second highest total among defenders.

Midfielders

Predicting which players will feature for Manchester City is generally a thankless task, so with that caveat in place, two more of their midfielders make the selection for the home game against Mönchengladbach. Phil Foden (€7.1m) is always a strong option considering his price tag and has featured more and more frequently for Josep Guardiola's men, whereas Riyad Mahrez (€8.9m) is still awaiting his first goal in this season's UEFA Champions League but has hit seven in the Premier League.

Another player in excellent domestic goalscoring form is Porto's Sérgio Oliveira (€6.7m), who has managed 15 goals in all competitions for the Portuguese team, including three in Europe – all penalties – and could be a crucial figure at Juventus. The Italian side are likely to welcome back Juan Cuadrado (€6.7m) for that game, the Colombian having bagged 32 Fantasy points this season despite missing two of Juve's last three matches – including the first leg at Porto. Bayern's Kingsley Coman (€8.4m) completes the midfield; there may be the threat of rotation with the holders 4-1 up on Lazio, but the Frenchman's explosive potential means that, despite sitting out two games, he is the third highest-scoring Fantasy midfielder overall, courtesy of his three goals and three assists.

Forwards

Two of the three members of the strike force practically pick themselves. Erling Haaland (€11.1m) is the top scorer in this season's UEFA Champions League with eight goals, contributing towards his Fantasy total of 44 points, and has also netted 19 goals in the Bundesliga – the Norwegian has ten in his last ten matches on all fronts, including two in the first-leg win at Sevilla. Cristiano Ronaldo (€12.1m) drew a blank in Juve's loss at Porto but has four goals in as many Serie A games since then, making it 20 for the season in Serie A – and his pedigree in this competition needs no further explanation. The investment in those two leaves funds quite tight elsewhere up front, but Olivier Giroud (€7.7m) is a good budget option for Chelsea's game against Atlético – his first-leg winner makes him a strong contender to start again.