With the UEFA Champions League drawing ever closer, UEFA.com outlines five key strategies that can lead to success in #UCLfantasy.

PLAY UCL FANTASY

Build a strong squad

One of #UCLfantasy's key features is the ability to use all 15 of your players in the same matchday, so selecting a strong overall squad is vital to success in the long run. While it is tempting to focus most of your budget on your starting XI, the best #UCLfantasy teams have a full squad of players capable of returning points. The optimal approach is to keep players who are playing on Wednesday on the bench, giving you the option of switching them in should some of your Tuesday players not perform.

Keep an eye on matchday deadlines

The deadline for making changes to your squad is always the kick-off time of the first game in a matchday. It's easy to get caught out by these, especially with early kick-offs, so check out our rules page where you can find a list of all matchday deadlines. Savvy #UCLfantasy managers make the most of these deadlines by checking the starting line-ups if they are available (team Twitter pages are often the best source for this), giving them an advantage over those who aren't keeping track of events prior to kick-off. Such details can be enough to give you an edge over your mini-league rivals.

Have two captains in mind

Much like the ability to make substitutions between Tuesday and Wednesday fixtures, #UCLfantasy managers are also given two bites at the cherry when it comes to selecting a captain. It's worthwhile including at least one premium player from both gamedays in your squad, so that if your first skipper doesn't produce a satisfactory return, you have the option of switching the armband to one of Wednesday's leading protagonists. This is very much a twist or stick scenario, so it might be wise to decide ahead of time how many points you would be happy to receive from your captain.

Be smart with your free transfers

While it is often tempting to make kneejerk changes to your squad if it hasn't performed as well as you would have liked, you don't want to find yourself in a situation where you have used up your free transfers early before discovering you've picked up injuries in the time between matchdays. Making your changes as close to matchday deadlines as possible gives you the benefit of analysing any significant team news as well as taking into account domestic form. Also note that you can carry one free transfer over to the following matchday, but this only applies in the group stage.

Use your boosters wisely

Every #UCLfantasy manager is presented with two boosters to use during the season, and the timing of these can be crucial. If you feel your squad is in need of major surgery and two or three transfers simply won't cut it, it could be time to deploy your Wildcard – which gives you unlimited transfers for that particular matchday. Similarly, if there are several big-hitting players in good form and you are struggling to include them all due to budget constraints, the Limitless Wildcard will give you an unlimited budget for one matchday only. Note that unlimited transfers are given to everyone ahead of the round of 16 first legs, so this can essentially be seen as a third wildcard to use in addition to the two boosters.

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