And just like that, we’re back with another round of Fantasy picks in a flash as the knockout stage of our favourite competition started last week. It’s safe to say that the first legs were full of drama, both on and off the pitch. From Galatasaray’s thumping of the Old Lady to Vinícius’ phenomenal strike (and everything else that followed…), it’s not really the case that the play-offs are that boring, as many UCL fanatics often emphasize.

To avoid recycling last week’s content, we’ll be a bit more flexible when referring to these return legs, since re-presenting a fresh XI from the same fixtures is somewhat of a limited job. Let’s keep things interesting and build on last week’s picks and results by seeing what we can learn from what happened.

Atlético Madrid vs Club Brugge

Atlético will kick-start the UCL’s second legs this week by hosting Club Brugge after, well, frankly, bottling the first leg away in Belgium. To our demise, including Giuliano Simeone in our last week’s picks wasn’t the smartest of moves as he turned out to be the lowest-rated attacking player with a 6.1 Sofascore Rating against Brugge. We did get two things right, so let’s refer back to two of our sentences under the Simeone section: “Atlético Madrid are weird, a very weird team right now” and “Club Brugge are no pushover”. Combining Atléti’s inconsistency and Brugge’s tendency to surprise, the return in Madrid should be more than interesting.

We’d recommend avoiding Simeone this time around, which doesn’t take a genius to figure out. Griezmann is always a safe bet in attack, but a gamble with Tzolis wouldn’t be crazy at this point. With flashes of his former last season self, the Greek is a menace, so who knows? He might send Atléti home earlier than expected, and at only €5.7M, he’s not expensive.

Inter vs Bodø/Glimt

Well, well, well… look at the Italians struggling against Bodø. Is anybody really surprised at this point? Patrick Berg was one of our midfield picks last week, so let’s quote ourselves again: “Can Inter do it on a cold and rainy night in Bodø? Well, considering the fact that we have Patrick Berg as one of our Sofascore Fantasy picks, we don’t think so.” Now, what have we learned from the first fixture? Nothing much, we all know how tough the Norwegians are at home. The more important question is how compact and competitive will they able to be in the return leg in Italy.

Since the 2020/21 season, Bodø have won 75% of their matches in all UEFA competitions at home while only winning 24% away from home. Last year, they knocked Lazio out of the Europa League in the quarter-finals on penalties, despite losing their two-goal lead from the first leg. While nobody can really predict how this second leg will play out, one thing is for sure, we’re backing the boys from Bodø. Jens Petter Hauge would be our Fantasy pick, with five goals in nine matches, including one against Inter last week.

Bayer Leverkusen vs Olympiacos

The first leg in Piraeus was a fixture that we didn’t cover due to the fact that we thought it was going to end up as a stalemate. Away days in fierce Greek atmospheres are anything but easy, and with the return leg being in Germany, we were inclined towards a potential bore draw. On the other hand, Patrik Schick‘s two goals in a crucial Bayer away win have simplified our job even further this week. No matter the first leg result, Bayer have too much to offer against an inconsistent Olympiacos side that, before this weekend’s win against Pantelikos, had one win in their last five in the Greek Super League.

If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. There’s no reason to think Bayer won’t take the second leg seriously, as they rested their Czech marksman against Union Berlin on Saturday. Olympiacos will have to fully open up in Germany, which will surely leave their defense exposed to Schick’s offensive prowess. Four goals and an assist in seven matches for Bayer in this UCL campaign is more than solid, so let’s see if he can transfer some momentum from the first leg into this rematch.

Newcastle vs Qarabağ

Here we have part two of “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it”, and ‘not broken’ is quite the understatement when talking about Anthony Gordon. Last week, we recommended Kieran Trippier as our right back Fantasy pick, and just like the rest of Newcastle’s expedition in Azerbaijan, he did not disappoint; an assist, a couple of key passes, with not much defensive duties, and a 7.2 Sofascore rating. In all honesty, this second leg is more of a formality, and that’s only due to Gordon’s world-class decimation of Qarabağ. Four goals in the first half is simply disrespectful, and a 1-6 away win practically means that the Magpies could put out their U18 academy side and go through.

While Newcastle definitely won’t be putting out their U18 ‘lads’, Eddie Howe might rotate a bit, which hopefully won’t affect Gordon’s place in the first XI, as who else can we mention but the only Englishman next to Harry Kane to score more than 10 goals in a single UCL campaign since the 03/04 season. Mentioning any name but his in terms of this week’s Newcastle picks would be crazy to say the least…

Atalanta vs Borussia Dortmund

One thing we learned from the first leg in Dortmund is to check injury reports… as our pick well… didn’t play…

In our defense, Nico Schlotterbeck was deemed unfit on matchday after our Sofascore Fantasy picks were published, so we aren’t entirely to blame. Returning to what occurred on the pitch last week, Borussia absolutely dominated and deservedly take a two-goal lead to Bergamo, thanks to Guirassy and Beiers’ first-half goals. While Atalanta are unbeaten in their last nine Serie A matches, their UCL form is a completely different story as La Dea are winless in their last three. “Winless in their last three” could have also been said about Borussia, prior to last week’s first leg win, which essentially means that both clubs have been blowing hot and cold at the moment.

We’re going to stick with defensive picks, as we’ll alternate to the Algerian Ramy Bensebaini. His last week’s UCL performance was immense, 10 defensive contributions, 8/9 duels won, 92% passing accuracy, and an 8.4 Sofascore Rating. Moreover, he’s currently the 7th highest-rated player in the Bundesliga with a 7.47 Avg. Sofascore Rating.

Juventus vs Galatasaray

The first leg in Istanbul was arguably the match of the round, in which a poor Juventus side was taught a lesson by their Turkish counterparts. Juventus’ nickname is actually starting to make sense, because they’re playing like an old lady, a paralysed, frail, and anaemic old lady. Four losses in their last five in all competitions is a series of form only Hellas Verona could rival. In contrast, we’d say that Galatasaray are the very opposite of an old lady, but they lost to Konyaspor this weekend, which slightly ruins our narrative. Despite expected dominance in their domestic league, the Turkish giants are fascinating in the Champions League, fascinating in the sense we called Atlético “weird”.

Three wins in a row were followed by a winless run of four successive rounds in the UCL for Galatasaray before destroying Juventus away. Who knows what Galatasaray we can expect on Wednesday night? Similarly, who knows what Juventus we can expect on Wednesday night? Well, no.. actually.. we do know what Juventus we’ll be getting and for that reason only, ladies & gentlemen, put Osimhen, Yılmaz, or Akgün in your Fantasy squads. You won’t be making a mistake.

PSG vs AS Monaco

After Schlotterbeck’s injury curse, we have our second Fantasy victim in Ousmane Dembélé, who was one of our picks but went off injured in the 27th minute. Luckily for PSG, Désiré Doué replaced him and absolutely stole the show, scoring twice, creating three big chances, and providing five key passes, earning him a 9.4 Sofascore Rating and thus a crucial win for PSG. Doué transitioned this stellar form into Ligue 1, scoring in the third minute against Metz, however, he came off injured before half-time…

Our last week’s pick aside Dembélé received less than half an hour, as Kang-in Lee was substituted on for Kvaratskhelia and practically didn’t do much. The first leg taught us not to gamble with PSG’s attacking options, which sends us to their backline. More specifically, to their highest-rated defender: their captain, Marquinhos. PSG will be cautious as they enter with a crucial lead.

Real Madrid vs Benfica

And finally, the creme of the crop of the play-off round. Back in Lisbon, this was a turbulent and intense one. Leaving aside what happened after Vinícius‘ goal and purely focusing on football, Benfica solidly stood their ground despite the chances going Los Blancos’ way. Dean Huijsen was Sofascore’s Player of the match with an 8.2 Rating, which vividly depicts that nobody really had a stellar performance on both sides. Vinícius scored the only goal, which was absolutely world-class, and considering his recent form (plus some external recent motivation that arose against Benfica), the Brazilian is our pick for the second leg.

Despite an unexpected loss against Osasuna, he’s been in flying form recently. Eight goals in his last seven matches is exactly the type of form and standard Real Madrid fans have set for Viní. It goes without saying he’ll be at his very best when Slavko Vinčić kicks off the second leg at the Bernabéu.