Now things are finally starting to heat up as the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 is fast approaching, and we’ve got quite the spectacles lined up! Oh, who would have guessed that the ‘magic balls’ would have given us yet another Real Madrid – Man City draw? It wouldn’t be a UCL knockout phase without those two giants meeting each other. Speaking of giants, Bodø/Glimt is the biggest of them all, and not to brag or anything, but refer back to our second leg play-off picks to see what we thought their chances were of making it past Inter.

By now, you should know the drill: 11 players, 11 picks. Let’s waste no more time and get straight into it!

Formation: 4-4-2

David Raya (Leverkusen vs Arsenal) – €6.3m

As much as it would be fun to experiment right now, there is absolutely no need when our goalkeeping position is at stake, especially since we’re slowly entering a phase of the competition where practically the very best of the best is left. Leverkusen have had an underwhelming season, both domestically and in Europe. Maybe their peak years with Xabi Alonso raised the bar a bit too high, but barely squeezing past Greek champions Olympiacos doesn’t signal any signs of confidence ahead of their tie with Arsenal. An Arsenal that finished 1st with eight wins out of eight in the League phase.

David Raya is instrumental to their success this season, keeping five clean sheets in seven UCL appearances. Their infamous defense has become an absolute nightmare to deal with, regardless of the opposition they face. This pick’s a no-brainer as the Gunners are too much for Leverkusen at the moment.

Gabriel Magalhães (Leverkusen vs Arsenal) – €7.2m

It’s not what it looks like, we promise… our whole backline won’t solely consist of Arsenal players, Gabriel is the last of the bunch! The Round of 16 is not like Round 2 of the League phase, we can’t be messing and playing around with our picks anymore. Only serious analysis from now on, which is why our first defender is one Arsenal fans consider to be “potentially better than Maldini”… or is that Saliba?

In all seriousness, yet another “no-brainer”, as Gabriel is the definition of rock solid. What can’t this man do? In the Premier League, he has two goals in his last four matches, positioning himself as a danger up top with Arteta’s terror set-pieces, sending chills to all opposition players having to defend an Arsenal corner. In terms of Gabriel’s UCL stats, his 7.38 Sofascore Average Rating with a goal, an assist, and two clean sheets in five appearances is practically ‘enough said’ in terms of attempting to convince you to put him in your Fantasy XI.

Dean Huijsen (Real Madrid vs Man City) – €6.9m

Finally moving away from North London, Gabriel’s centre-back pairing takes us to the Spanish capital and the most successful club in Champions League history, no other than Real Madrid. Despite Los Blancos’ turbulent form recently in LaLiga and the mere fact that they’ll host Guardiola’s Man City on Wednesday, there’s something in the air that itches a potential bore draw in leg one, with both sides being rather cautious. We might be totally off as nobody would be surprised if it rained goals in the Bernabeu, but in the case that it doesn’t, Huijsen is an excellent pick.

Currently sitting in as the third-highest-rated Real Madrid UCL player and highest-rated defender, with a Sofascore Average Rating of 7.28 over the course of six matches, Huijsen is a world-class centre-back at only twenty years-old. He’s dynamic, dominant in the air, and has a brilliant pass in him. What’s not to like?

Matheus Nunes (Real Madrid vs Man City) – €6.9m

Moving back to England for our right-back pick, we’ve got a midfielder? We’re also technically staying in Spain, as Nunes will be travelling to Madrid with the rest of the Pep delegation, the very same delegation that made a wing back out of a creative and box-to-box Portuguese midfielder. It doesn’t make sense to us either, but when Pep has a vision, he makes it work, and to be fair to him, Nunes had adapted well to his new surroundings.

Sticking to the same logic as our previous pick, such gigantic ties are often decided in the second legs as both Real Madrid and Man City expect to enter with a certain dosage of cautiousness. Nunes adaptability makes him a holistic pick, providing defensive stability alongside City’s backline as well as his attacking threat and creativity.

Josip Stanišić (Atalanta vs Bayern) – €7.0m

Realistically speaking, Atalanta’s very lucky to have made it this far. Kobel and Bensebaini’s shenanigans in the final seconds of leg two basically awarded Atalanta a chance to face their Bundesliga rivals in the Round of 16, and it’s not going be too fun this time around for Palladino’s side. Sitting in 7th place in the Serie A, Atalanta is as turbulent as turbulent can be, while Bayern are the very opposite and a force to be reckoned with.

Practically wrapping up the Bundesliga with an away win in Dortmund on the 28th of February, Kompany will shift a majority of his focus to the Champions League. Josip Stanišić is a player who has recently cemented his spot in the starting eleven, providing consistency and reliability on the right-hand side, behind Olise. Just as the Germans like, tough in defense and with plenty of overlaps forward, if Bayern’s well-oiled machine gets going in Bergamo, the Croatian is going to be flying.

Håkon Evjen (Bodø/Glimt vs Sporting) – €5.6m

With the defense done, our midfield Fantasy picks kick off with a man who sealed the deal in Milan two weeks ago with that absolutely beautiful strike. Luckily, these fantasy picks are produced in text format because we don’t even want to attempt to pronounce Håkon Evjen, but oh, is he quite the player. Despite that goal being his first in this UCL campaign, Evjen is on a consistent run of form against European giants, with 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, and 7.4 Sofascore Ratings in his last four matches against Man City, Atlético, and Inter twice, respectively.

We believed in Bodø last time, and nothing’s changed ahead of the Round of 16 as the Norwegian fairytale is going to cruise past its Portuguese counterparts. Sporting is no joke, especially Luis Javier Suárez, who has turned into an absolute goal machine this season, replacing Gyökeres. But the Norwegians are simply on another level, and we believe they’ll travel to Lisbon with an advantage after Wednesday’s first leg.

Gabriel Sara (Galatasaray vs Liverpool) – €5.0m

We’re pairing up Gabriel Sara with Evjen in the heart of our midfield, as the prior knows what it takes to beat Liverpool at home and put up a brilliant Champions League performance. Galatasaray is a different beast at home, which is exactly why we’ve picked one of their players for this first leg. More specifically, Galatasaray is a beast at home and a puppy away. Nonetheless, the Reds have already fallen short before the heat of Rams Park this season, when Osimhen’s penalty left Liverpool heading back to England with a Round 2 loss.

Gabriel Sara, just like his namesake and fellow compatriot in Arsenal, is a vital player and extremely important to his side. His 9.7 performance with a goal and assist in leg one against Juventus is definitely his season’s best thus far, so he’ll be awaiting already familiar opposition with confidence in Istanbul.

Michael Olise (Atalanta vs Bayern) – €11.3m

Sticking to the Bavarians on the right, we’re placing Olise ahead of Stanišić as the Frenchman has raised his game to an extraordinary level since joining Bayern on the 7th of July 2024. To put his brilliance into perspective, he finished as the joint-highest-rated in the Bundesliga last season with his teammate Kimmich, as both ended the campaign with 7.91 Sofascore Average Ratings. Not to mention that this season he’s behind yet another teammate of his, this time alongside countryman Harry Kane (7.97 and 7.85), as their linkup in attack is arguably the best in Europe.

Olise’s UCL campaign has been a bit underwhelming in terms of goals, scoring once, against Pafos away, in eight appearances thus far. On the contrary, he’s contributed four assists while averaging 2.4 key passes and 3.4 successful dribbles per game. Sead Kolašinac is going to be sweating in the tunnel when he sees the “King of Fantasy”, before both sides even step onto the pitch and hear the Champions League anthem.

Lamine Yamal (Newcastle vs Barcelona) – €11.5m

There’s only one man who can top Michael Olise in midfield, and that’s Lamine Yamal. Objectively and subjectively, the best player in the world. After a brief period of goofing around as a typical seventeen and eighteen-year-old, in which his form dipped, where people started to doubt whether he was destined for greatness, Yamal hasn’t just kicked it up a notch, but he’s skyrocketed to the very top. His recent form is the very crème de la crème of world football, and if he keeps it up for the majority of this calendar year, there’s only one address the Ballon d’Or will be predestined for.

Just for formalities’ sake, let’s take a quick look at his stats this season. In the UCL, an 8.03 Sofascore Average Rating with three goals, three assists, 2.7 key passes, 4.5 successful dribbles, and 8.0 duels won per game in six appearances. In LaLiga, a 7.98 Sofascore Average rating with 14 goals, nine assists, 2.7 key passes, 5.0 successful dribbles, and 8.3 duels won per game in 22 appearances. Simply enough said.

Jens Petter Hauge (Bodø/Glimt vs Sporting) – €5.8m

Segmenting our way into the attack and into our final two picks, we have a player who at this point needs no introduction. No other than Bodø’s biggest star and their highest-rated outfield UCL player, as well as the man we backed last time around before the second leg in Italy, Jens Petter Hauge. By now, we all know how fascinating their story is, but let’s just take a moment to appreciate just how crucial Hauge has been for this Bodø side that was practically given a fraction of a percentage of getting past the League phase ahead of their last two matches.

Since then, Hauge has two goals and an assist against Inter in two matches, as well as a goal and a masterclass of a performance, backed by an 8.8 Sofascore Rating, against Manchester City. Every time Hauge’s on the ball, whether it’s simply receiving a long pass or an elegant dribble, you can tell that he’s a player of class and instrumental to Bodø’s creativity. After not failing to deliver for his ex-club’s fans who eagerly anticipated a brilliant performance against their rivals Inter, Hauge will be feeling like he can deliver the damage yet again on a cold and windy night in northern Norway against Sporting.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (PSG vs Chelsea) – €8.5m

Throughout this season’s UCL Fantasy picks, we’ve constantly fumbled when attempting to predict a potential PSG performance worthy of highlighting. Selecting Dembélé just for him to get injured, replaced by Doué who puts in a masterclass and then also gets injured, picking Kang-in Lee who barely plays and gets 15 minutes of gametime. Now we’ve decided that we’re putting this negative run to an end with the help of our Georgian friend, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, or Kvara for short, or Khvicha.

In all honesty, we’ve known all along that it would be Kvara whom we’d have to rely on when the going gets tough. Dembélé and Doué have flashes of brilliance in the midst of being injury-prone, but in terms of reliability, Kvara is the man you need and want. Excelling in the Champions League, Khvicha is PSG’s third-highest-rated player with a 7.40 Sofascore Average Rating, with seven goal involvements in nine appearances. PSG have an extremely tough tie with Chelsea, but it’s finally time for our PSG pick to blossom.

Cost: €82