Fantasy Football: Draft 11 - This Week's Champions League Tips

WhoScored.com are teaming up with unique fantasy football platform Draft 11 to help you decide who to choose ahead of the return of the Champions League this week, as eight teams do battle on Tuesday and Wednesday in the first legs of their round of 16 fixtures.

Draft 11 is different to other fantasy football offerings in that they enable you to choose a new XI every week, with a $100k wage budget with which to do so. A player's wages will change week-by-week according to form, with statistics having a stronger part to play in the scoring system than traditional fantasy football games. Players are able to score points for passes, tackles, shots and much more in addition to the standard goals and assists, meaning it requires real football knowhow to pick a winning team.
 
For more information on how best to play and the incentives available click here, but if you're ready to choose your XI, here are a few tips ahead of this week's matches.

Salvatore Sirigu

He may not have been the busiest of keepers in the group stages but Salvatore Sirigu will have to keep a Chelsea side welcoming Diego Costa back into their line-up at bay on Tuesday. Only two sides had more shots in the group stages than the Blues (17.2 per game) so the Italian stopper is likely to be busy but PSG only conceded three goals at the Parc des Princes in a group stage that included a highly-entertaining encounter with Barcelona.

Alex Sandro

Porto make the trip to Basel, who have become something of a perennial overachiever in the Champions League. The Portuguese outfit will be favourites to progress past the Swiss regardless, and full-back Alex Sandro has been very impressive in the tournament up to now, earning an excellent WhoScored rating of 7.94, making more tackles and interceptions combined (51) than any other player in the group stages.

Benedikt Höwedes

Very few will be expecting Schalke to keep Real Madrid's megastars at bay but with defenders not docked points for conceding goals the Bundesliga side are sure to be busy at the back. If Roberto Di Matteo's men are to have any chance against the reigning champions they'll need their captain to lead by example, with Höwedes seeing plenty of the ball in the group stages, averaging 62.8 passes per game, whilst also exhibiting his defensive anticipation, with only five players averaging more interceptions (4 per game).

Jerome Boateng

Bayern Munich should see plenty of the ball over their double header with Shakhtar Donetsk, building from the back as usual via the likes of Boateng and Benatia. Only two players averaged more passes per game in the group stages than the former (86.4), with Boateng also picking up a goal and an assist en route to the knockout stages.

Darijo Srna

Another player who is crucial to his side's build play from the back is Shakhtar captain Darijo Srna. The Croatian was among the top 10 rated players according to WhoScored.com in the group stages, with a score of 8.01, and gets through plenty of work in both the defensive and attacking phase of play. That much is unlikely to change when his side host Bayern on Tuesday night.

Eden Hazard

Only Lionel Messi picked up a higher rating from WhoScored.com in the Champions League group stages than Hazard (8.55). The Belgian scored twice and assisted a further two goals en route to the knockout phase and fired off an average of 3 shots per game, proving a constant menace to opposition defences as ever. An apparent long-time target of hosts PSG, Hazard scored in France when the two sides met in the quarter-finals last season.

Casemiro

Though he wasn't fit for the entire group stages young Brazilian Casemiro is now a regular in the Porto side and over his 4 appearances in the competition to date has proven just how capable a defensive midfielder he is. The visitors can expect to see plenty of the ball at Basel, with only three sides averaging more possession in the group stages (60.8%), so Casemiro will expect to see his fair share having averaged 61.3 passes per game thus far. Elsewhere, only Nemanja Matic averaged more tackles per game in the groups (5.5).

Marco Verratti

Another midfielder likely to be in the thick of the action this week is Marco Verratti, who will carry even more of the ball-playing burden in the absence of a number of injured PSG stars when they host Chelsea. The Blues may well let their hosts dictate the tempo and wait for chances on the counter, so the Italian can expect to keep up his impressive pass rate of 64.8 per game, and he'll need to be at his best when breaking up play too, averaging an excellent 3.8 tackles per game in the group stages.

Willian

If Chelsea do look to play a counter-attacking game at the weekend then their industrious winger Brazilian may well play a pivotal role once again. Willian created 2.2 chances per game in his 5 group stage appearances, registering a goal and an assist, and always offers plenty of hard graft in the defensive phase of play so should, as usual, get through a lot of work.

Luiz Adriano

It may be a long shot to pick any opposing striker against Bayern Munich but Shakhtar will know if they are to have any chance of upsetting the odds against the Germans they will need to pose a threat in this first leg at home. Bayern certainly aren't impenetrable on the road so Luiz Adriano, who leads the competition's scoring charts after a remarkable 9 goals in the group stages, may get chances and has proven that he is more than capable of taking them.

Cristiano Ronaldo (c)

Although he has had an uncharacteristically slow start to the calendar year Schalke's defenders will dread coming up against Cristiano Ronaldo after their double header with the reigning champions last year. Real Madrid put 9 past the Bundesliga outfit over two legs at this stage of the competition in 2014, with Ronaldo responsible for 4 of those, including a brace in Gelsenkirchen. Having attempted a whopping 44 shots in the group stages - 16 more than any other player - the Portuguese is the obvious choice when selecting your captain, with the all important double points up for grabs.

 
If you want to play one of the free-to-enter or cash games get across to Draft 11 now and test your skills against the world!

Who will be in your fantasy football team for this week's Champions League fixtures? Let us know in the comments below