UCL Fantasy Matchday 4: Tips, Captain, Picks & Team

ucl fantasy matchday 4

Three UCL Fantasy rounds are behind us, and another three rounds in the group stage to go. Regarding the fixtures, the following three rounds of UEFA Fantasy Champions League will mirror the previous three.

Does this mean that we can expect the same outputs in MD4-MD6 as we saw in MD1-MD3? It could happen…

Let’s jump to our UCL Fantasy tips for Matchday 4 with the best captain, best picks, fixtures to target, balls recovered, and our own scout team selection.

Hopefully, our tips will help you to make a good decision about your fantasy team before the first kick-off of the MD4 of the Champions League.

Do you want to get better at UCL Fantasy? Read our article about Essential Tips for UCL Fantasy Success.

1. Strategy and tips for UCL Fantasy Matchday 4 and onwards

Note.: WE DO NOT EXPECT HAALAND AND BELLINGHAM TO START IN MD4. ADJUST YOUR STRATEGY ACCORDINGLY.

But if you decide to transfer them out, be sure you have a route how to bring them back for Matchday 5.

Note.:: For some reason, it seems (at least from my location), that deadline counter is set up for 1 hour sooner – it is probably a mistake on the website, but monitor that, to not be locked out of the moves 1 hour sooner than expected.

In Matchdays 4, 5, and 6 we will see reverse fixtures for MD1, MD2, and MD3.

Basically, we have already seen these fixtures but in reverse. So, try to exploit all the information you can get from the dataset you have about MD1, MD2, and MD3 to fully prepare your UCL Fantasy team for the same set of fixtures.

Also, if you already used all your chips, try to save one transfer this round, so you will have 3 transfers available for Matchday 5 to change. your UCL Fantasy team based on the fixtures.

And try to use your free transfer (transfers) with MD5 fixture in mind as well.

You can also use your free transfers, to change the number of players you have on Tuesday and Wednesday. For example, if you had 8 players on Tuesday and 7 on Wednesday on MD3, now it will be reversed, so you will have 7 for Tuesday and 8 for Wednesday.

This could cause a substitution headache. So you can use your free transfer to remove one Wednesday player and replace him with a Tuesday player, so you will have 8 players for Tuesday and 7 for Wednesday.

Your strategy for MD4 should be very similar to your Matchday 3 strategy, so:

  1. Target easy fixtures. Focus on premium players who are likely to haul and who play against very easy oppositions in MD4.
  2. Alongside these few heavy hitters focus on cheap players who have stable output in balls recovered.
  3. Pick defenders that have a high chance of a clean sheet
  4. Select cheaper players from weaker teams that have now good fixture in MD4, and possibly in MD5.
  5. Make sure you have 2 great captaincy options, one for each day
  6. Make sure your goalkeepers play on different days so you can use subs on them
  7. Have around 8 players for Tuesday and around 7 players for Wednesday to use subs efficiently

Wildcard note: If you used your classic wildcard in MD3, you basically set up your team perfectly not just for MD3, but MD4 as well as there are the same fixtures. So if it is your case, we think you should not use limitless in MD4, but rather save it for MD5 or MD6,

2. Fixtures to target in UCL Fantasy Matchday 4

Now let’s use our Odds to probability calculator to find out which fixtures we should target in Matchday 4 according to bookies odds.

Tuesday fixtures

  • Manchester City vs. YB Bern: Citizens 90 % to win, 62 % to score 2.5+ goals
  • Sachtar Doneck vs. Barcelona: Blaugranas 76 % to win, 42 % to score 2.5+ goals
  • Atletico Madrid vs. Celtic: Atleti 74 % to win, 40 % to score 2.5+ goals
  • FC Porto vs. Antwerp: Porto 70 % to win, 35 % to score 2.5+ goals

Wednesday fixtures

  • Bayern vs. Galatasaray: Bayern 79 % to win, 58 % to score 2.5+ goals
  • Real Madrid vs. Braga: Real 79 % to win, 56 % to score 2.5+ goals
  • Arenal vs. Sevilla: The Gunners 74 % to win, 42 % to score 2.5+ goals
  • Napoli vs. Union Berlin: Napoli 65 % to win, 30 % to score 2.5+ goals

Find 2.5+ goals odds for all teams in our article: Champions League Over 2.5 Goals Odds.

3. Best players to pick in MD4

We look at key players to pick in Fantasy Champions League MD4. We examine each position and each price bracket. You can check our separate articles here:

Best players to pick from each team

Find out, who are the best players to pick from each team in UCL Fantasy this season, in our article: Best players from each team to pick in UCL Fantasy.

4. Best captain for UCL Fantasy Matchday 4

Let’s look at who do we consider to be the best captain for UCL Fantasy Matchday 4.

It all depends on whether Haaland is fit or not for MD4. If there is some confirmation he is fit, he will be our captain. If not, we would captain Alvarez, or Lewandowski (if Lewandowski is in starting line up – we will know whether he starts before the deadline)

Tuesday captain pick: Lewandowski (SHK (A))

For Tuesday, the most appealing fixtures for captaincy are Manchester City vs YB Bern and Sachtar Doneck vs Barcelona.

There is no need to overcomplicate and overthink this decision.

No team scored more goals in this Champions League campaign than Manchester City (9) and Bayern (9) this season. Citizen’s firepower is undeniable, bookies really favor them to do well, and if the trend continues we will see a lot of goals from them in this one too. So if Haaland is fit, he would be our captain…

However…

With Haaland likely out of MD4, Lewandowski is our number 1 captain pick – he is back from injury and we will know whether he starts before the deadline.

Other captain picks for Tuesday: Lewandowski, Alvarez, Joao Felix, Griezmann, Gimenez, Mbappe

Wednesday captain pick: Kane (GAL (H))

The standout fixtures for the captaincy on Wednesday are Bayern Munich vs Galatasaray, Real Madrid vs. Braga, and Arsenal vs. Sevilla. 

We use the same strategy as in Matchday 4.

So, Kane is our backup captain pick for Wednesday, if our Tuesday captain fails to deliver (score 9+ points).

You can read more about when you should change your captain and about rules we use for changing the captaincy in our article: When you should change your UCL Fantasy captain?

Other captain picks for Wednesday: Sané, Bellingham, Vinicius, Saka

5. Players great at recovering balls

After three matchdays we have a better picture of players who are good at balls recovered. Players who can consistently do the job and score an extra 2-3 points for you matchday after matchday.

If you are interested to know, which players did well in balls recovered during the last two seasons, check our article about Balls Recovering Heroes.

These players have the most balls recovered this season after three matchdays:

  • 29 – Diogo Leite, Kim
  • 27 – Otamendi
  • 26 – Bardakci
  • 25 – Hummels

Leite and Kim are very appealing stable picks, they can get you 4-5 points even when their team do not keep a clean sheet.

(Source: Official UCL Stats)

6. Bookies odds for Matchday 4

As usual, we looked at what bookies think about the Matchday 4 of UCL Fantasy.

We checked the clean sheet odds to determine which teams are most likely to keep a clean sheet in the MD4 and goalscoring odds to determine which players are most likely to score a goal in MD4.

It can be very helpful when selecting the defense of your UCL Fantasy team or choosing your captain.

We used our Odds to probability calculator for converting bookies’ odds into probabilities.

Clean sheet odds for MD4

Bookies favor Manchester City to keep a clean sheet with 65 % probability. Atletico Madrid (47 %) and Porto, Napoli, Arsenal (44 %) follow. Bookies expect 8.04 clean sheets in Matchday 4. You can find the full Champions League clean sheet odds table here.

Goalscoring odds for MD4

You can find goalscoring odds for MD4 here.

7. UCL Fantasy Team Selection for Matchday 4

Let’s finish our preview for the Matchday 4 of UCL Fantasy with our scout picks and team selection. This is a good inspiration for managers on their wildcard (regular one). If you plan to use your limitless wildcard in MD4, check our limitless squad here.

The team is really dependent on whether Haaland will be fit or not for MD4. If there are rumors that he is not going to play, we would swap him for Lewandowski (if he is confirmed in the starting lineup), and if Lewa is not in starting lineup, then for Mbappe. Griezmann is another one in consideration.

uclfantasy md4 wildcard team updated
uclfantasy md4 wildcard team updated

8. Fantasy Champions League Tips

Find more tips, strategies, and picks for UCL Fantasy in these articles:

Feel free to JOIN our UCL fantasy mini-league for the 2023/24 season using our league code 50U1FM5M03.

Good luck in UCL Fantasy Matchday 4.

 

Matej Šuľan

Fantasy Football enthusiast with two top 1k finishes in FPL. Best FPL overall rank: 119th in 2019/20 season. Five top 500 finishes in UCL Fantasy, best overall rank: 23rd in 2018/19 season. Founder of Fantasy Football Reports.