Champions League Fantasy Football: The Scout squad for Matchday 11

The Scout's squad for the UEFA Champions League semi-final first legs is led by Erling Haaland, Karim Benzema and Lautaro Martínez while there is plenty of goal threat from the likes of Vinícius Júnior, Jack Grealish and Rodrygo in midfield and the ball recovery system means Fikayo Tomori, Francesco Acerbi and Ismaël Bennacer are also included.

Goalkeepers

Giving the depth of attacking talent on display, clean sheets are likely to be hard to come by on Matchday 11, so save points might be a crucial source of Fantasy returns. That said, Thibaut Courtois (€5.9m) has kept three successive clean sheets in the competition and three in his four Champions League games at the Santiago Bernabéu this season.

The Milan derby on Wednesday looks too close to call, with both Mike Maignan – who has conceded only once in his three knockout appearances – and André Onana (€5.0m) making a decent case for inclusion. The latter is the choice, given Inter have kept two clean sheets in their three games against their city rivals this season and Onana has managed six shut-outs in his ten games in this season's Champions League.

Defenders

Inter also provide two members of the five-man defence, with Federico Dimarco (€4.6m) selected having scored twice in his last four appearances – including in Saturday's 2-0 win at Roma, giving the wing-back four goals and six assists in Serie A this season. Francesco Acerbi (€4.5m) also represents a budget-friendly route into the Nerazzurri defence and has 42 Fantasy points this season, while Fikayo Tomori (€5.0m) has 36 but has excelled in terms of ball recoveries, picking up 14 of his points via that route.

Tuesday's game in Madrid promises to be a high-scoring affair with the Spanish side winning an 11-goal aggregate thriller at the equivalent stage last season, so attack-minded defenders might prove the most profitable source of points. Madrid full-back Dani Carvajal (€5.4m) is the third highest-scoring defender on Fantasy this season with 51 points, having managed two assists in addition to six clean sheets and picked up 19 points in his last three games. John Stones (€5.1m) is thriving in a new midfield role, scoring twice in his last four Premier League appearances – as many as in his previous 37 games.

Midfielders

Madrid provided the three top-scoring midfielders on Fantasy this season; indeed, Vinícius Júnior (€10.3m) is the highest scorer across all positions, his 82 points 16 more than any other player. Six goals scored and six assists mean it's no surprise the Brazilian is currently in almost half of all squads; Madrid team-mate Rodrygo (€8.0m) has five goals and two assists in this season's Champions League and also scored twice in Saturday's Copa del Rey final victory, making it five goals in his last six games in all competitions.

Jack Grealish (€7.9m) is the Manchester City selection despite picking up only 28 Fantasy points so far this season; two goals and four assists in his last six Premier League games suggest that could well change. In contrast, Inter's Nicolò Barella (€6.8m) has eight points in each of his last two Champions League games while Ismaël Bennacer (€5.9m) demonstrated his goalscoring threat in the quarter-final first leg against Napoli but the ball-recovery system may prove a more reliable source of returns given 11 of his total of 37 Fantasy points this season have come via that route.

Forwards

As has been the case for the last two rounds, two of the three forwards are almost self-selecting. Erling Haaland (€11.2m) is in 65% of Fantasy squads overall and has scored in ten of his last 12 games in all competitions – running in 18 goals in total in that time. Karim Benzema (€10.9m) scored three times against City in last season's semi-finals and with 31 Fantasy points in this season's knockout rounds already, is almost impossible to overlook.

The third forward is more of a dilemma, although the thigh injury suffered by Milan's Rafael Leão on Saturday may clarify matters. Inter's Lautaro Martínez (€8.5m) has 38 points this season, putting him fourth in the list in his position – and perhaps more relevantly, has four goals in his last three games against Milan, including one in each of his last two.