Beginner’s Guide to 22/23 UCL Fantasy Season | UCL Fantasy Tips

UCL Fantasy, like FPL, is completely free to play. As the UCL groups have been finalized, I have summarised the rules of UCL Fantasy and how it differs to FPL in anticipation for the game to start. If you are considering playing UCL Fantasy or wanted a refresher on how to play, hopefully, this UCL Fantasy Tips and Guide blog will help.

Article written by @soph_fpl, do follow her on Twitter!

All information can be found on the Official website, and I have tried to give as many helpful tips where possible.

UCL Fantasy Tips

Picking a UCL Fantasy Team

Players pick a set of 15 players identical to the structure of FPL: 2 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders, and 3 forwards, with a budget of €100m. This year, there are no assets above €11m, and the prices do differ to FPL. For example, the most expensive FPL defender Trent Alexander-Arnold starts at €6.5m in UCL Fantasy, compared with his starting price of £7.5m in FPL. However, £8m Manchester City mids Foden and Mahrez come in at €8.5m and €10m.

In the group stage, you are restricted to 3 players per team. This will gradually increase as teams are eliminated.

The first deadline is Tuesday 6th September at 18:45 CET. The game has launched ahead of the new tournament, so you can start to experiment with potential options, take a look at any players that stand out to you, or look at last year’s total points here.

Each matchday will be played across two days – this will be usually be a Tuesday and Wednesday night – except for the final.

UCL Fantasy Transfers

Deadlines for the first 6 matchdays (group stage) are as follows:

• MD1 – Tuesday 6 September 18:45 CET
• MD2 – Tuesday 13 September 18:45 CET
• MD3 – Tuesday 4 October 18:45 CET
• MD4 – Tuesday 11 October 18:45 CET
• MD5 – Tuesday 25 October 18:45 CET
• MD6 – Tuesday 1 November 18:45 CET

During the group stage, you will have 2 free transfers between each matchday. However, you can only save one free transfer for the following week. As in FPL, any additional transfer costs 4 points. It’s also important to note that after the group stage has finished, you will have unlimited transfers to make before the round of 16 kicks off.

As the UCL Fantasy deadline is usually the time of the first set of games’ kick-off, you will have Tuesday’s starting line-ups available to you. This is particularly helpful for teams like City, who are harder to predict, and can inform your transfers if they are playing in the first day’s games.

UCL Fantasy Captaincy and Subs

Another stark difference to FPL is that UCL Fantasy allows you to make substitutions and captaincy changes within a matchday. This allows you to pick a captain who plays on the first day, and if they don’t perform then you can put the armband on somehow who plays in Wednesday’s set of games.

This may allow you to opt for a differential captain choice knowing that you have the safety of trying again, but I think it is also important to have a strong captaincy candidate for both days.

Substitutions can be made within a matchday, so low-scoring players from the first day of games can be moved to your bench. However, you can only sub in players who have not yet played, and once subs have been confirmed you cannot reverse them.

A good bench to fall back on can therefore be quite important. If you have players that have unexpectedly been benched in the first day’s games, you can afford to give them a chance of returning off the bench, as you can always replace them before the second set of games in that matchday. As rotating goalkeepers are quite popular in UCL Fantasy, be sure that your keepers play on separate days.

Opting for rotation-prone players can be less risky here because you can have cover from your bench, or you could possibly have access to their line-up before you lock in your team, but I would also try to maximise your bench.

UCL Fantasy Points

In FPL points are available for:

• Minutes played
• Goals
• Assists
• Clean sheets
• Bonus

However, UCL Fantasy also awards a point for every 3 balls recovered, allowing for defenders and defensive midfielders to really rack up points, and awards an extra point for a goal outside the box. Another difference is that UCL Fantasy gives points to a player for winning a penalty regardless of whether they take it. Therefore, if the club’s penalty taker also wins the spot kick, they will get an extra 2 points. Although UCL Fantasy doesn’t have a bonus points feature, it will award an extra 3 points to the asset who is named player of the match.

	Goalkeepers	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Appearance	1	1	1	1
60 mins	1	1	1	1
Goal	6	6	5	4
Goal from outside box	1	1	1	1
Assist	3	3	3	3
Clean sheet	4	4	1	N/A
Every 3 balls recovered	1	1	1	1
Player of the match	3	3	3	3
Winning penalty	2	2	2	2
Saving a penalty	5	N/A	N/A	N/A
Every 3 saves	1	N/A	N/A	N/A
Yellow card	-1	-1	-1	-1
Red card	-3	-3	-3	-3
Own goal	-2	-2	-2	-2
Conceding penalty	-1	-1	-1	-1
Missing penalty	-2	-2	-2	-2
Every 2 goals conceded	-1	-1	N/A	N/A

UCL Fantasy Chips

Wildcard

Players have one Wildcard available across the game, which works identically to the FPL Wildcard. It allows for unlimited transfers for one matchday, and you keep that squad for upcoming weeks. You cannot, however, switch captaincy to someone who has already played. Wildcards can really help you jump on the in-form players or to target mini-fixture swings in the group stages. They can also be helpful in the later stages, especially if you have a lot of players from eliminated teams.

Limitless

Limitless works similar to the Free Hit. However, this chip means that you have no budget restrictions for that matchday. Players can choose a dream team for one matchday, but the squad returns to what it was before you played the chip for the following mathcday – like it does in the Free Hit. This allows you to really attack a matchday where some teams have very favourable fixtures.

Further Read: What is the Limitless Chip in UCL Fantasy | Limitless Chip Guide

2022/23 UCL Season Team Groups

UCL Fantasy Matchday 1 Fixtures:

ALLABOUTFPL UCL League

ALLABOUTFPL have a free-to-join UCL Fantasy league! You can join now using this link.

I hope you found this small guide helpful! Look out for future articles from ALLABOUTFPL covering UCL Fantasy ahead of the first deadline. Enjoy creating your teams!

Further Reads from ALLABOUTFPL ahead of UCL Fantasy MD1

Best UCL Fantasy Differentials to Consider for MD1 | 22/23 Season
UCL Fantasy: Captaincy Explained & Best Options for MD1
UCL Fantasy: Meta Discussion, Chip Strategy, & Players to Target
2022/23 UCL Fantasy Best Budget Enablers | Position Wise
What is the Limitless Chip in UCL Fantasy | Limitless Chip Guide
Beginner’s Guide to 22/23 UCL Fantasy Season | UCL Fantasy Tips
Best UCL Fantasy MD1 Drafts for 2022/23 Season With Pros/Cons

Link to all our UCL Fantasy Blogs in one place ~ All our team reveals, differentials, tips and other UCL Fantasy blogs in one place and for free

What’s next from ALLABOUTFPL ahead of Matchday 3 of the 2022/23 UCL Fantasy Season?

We’ll be covering UCL Fantasy team structures, must-own players, player comparisons, differential picks, fixture analysis, captaincy analysis, multiple team reveal drafts with pros and cons, chip strategy, rules guide, beginners guide, UCL fantasy tips, and more. Keep checking allaboutfpl.com for all our blogs and subscribe to our free newsletter through the link below. We’ll also be posting regularly about the same on our social media accounts so follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook keep our notification ON.

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UCL Fantasy Matchday 1 Deadline Countdown

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