The Champions League is back, which means UCL Fantasy is back!

The first leg of the Semi-Finals will be played on Tuesday 9th and Wednesday 10th of May. The deadline for UCL Matchday 11 is at 8pm on Tuesday evening.

This newsletter is here to make sure that your UCL Fantasy team is ready to go ahead of the deadline.

Ahead of Matchday 11 managers have five free transfers. Those transfers should be used wisely to remove injured players, as well as those who were knocked out of the competitions in the Quarter-Finals.

Over on Fantasy Football Community on Monday there will be articles on the Best UCL captains as well as expert Team Reveals.

Louis Roberts has one of the best records in UCL Fantasy. He currently sits at 400th out of the 2 million managers playing the game. Here he EXCLUSIVELY shares his thoughts ahead of Matchday 11.

Hello, @FPLReaction's here.

As a FFC member you have exclusive access to not just my general thoughts on what we should do in UCL Fantasy depending on our rank and mini-league position, but also my own plans and how I will tackle Matchday 11.

Firstly, it could be important to highlight several factors. The first thing to emphasise is that the first of two games commences at 8pm. That game will see Real Madrid host Manchester City at home and managers will be able to check both line-ups before making their transfers. The home side may have lost two of their last four matches in the league but rotation has been rife in the build-up to the Champions League. What is even more significant is in the two matches they did lose, star striker Karim Benzema (€10.9m) was not present. Equally, the two matches the Frenchman did start, the Spanish side won both. The visitors, Manchester City, are in relentless form.

The English side have managed to win nine of their last 10 matches in all competitions. They have also scored a huge 33 goals, averaging out at 3.3 goals scored per game. Main man Erling Haaland (€11.2m) has picked up three goals and two assists since his last Champions League outing, so similar to Benzema he is in fine form. It also also important to mention the return of Manchester City's key creator Kevin De Bruyne (€10.5m). The Belgian has missed his sides most recent matches but looks set to start in Spain.

Real Madrid and Manchester City look very likely to score to both legs in my opinion. Although if anyone was going to keep a clean sheet, I would back Manchester City. Interestingly, in their last five head-to-heads, both sides have scored in all of them whilst Manchester City have netted two or more goals in four of the same five games.

Moving over to the second and final game of Matchday 11, we head to Italy. AC Milan will host Inter in the first leg of the semi-finals at 8pm on Wednesday. This means that managers will not have access to the line-ups before making their transfers. In terms of domestic league form, Milan are the least convincing, drawing four of their last five matches whilst also failing to score more than one goal in any of the same four.

Inter look much more convincing. Since their most recent UCL game against Benfica they have won all of their games, scoring three or more goals in three of the same four matches. What is worth highlighting is that Inter have been rotating their team. There does seem to be a pattern though and it is vital that we highlight it. Since their latest Champions League match Inter have rotated defender Denzel Dumfries (€5.3m), and strikers Lautaro Martinez (€8.5m) and Edin Dzeko (€7.5m) in and out of the squad, every other game. All three players also started both of their quarter-final clashes. This suggests that all three could start both semi-finals along with other key players.

In turn, the players that are unlikely to start the match, based on that rotation cycle include defender Matteo Darmian (€4.4m) and strikers Romelu Lukaku (€9m) and Joaquin Correa (€6.3m). Another interesting set of stats coming into the game is that in the last five head-to-heads, Inter came out on top with three wins to AC Milan's one with the former bagging two or more goals in three of those same games.

So what should we do for the semi-finals?

If you are happy with your rank and want to maintain your position then the best thing to do is spread the risk. Spreading the risk means covering all of the key assets going into the new round whilst also making sure we do not back either team too heavily. Below, we can see I have built a squad for managers who want to hold their ground.

What will I be doing?

Well, I am currently 398th in the world and I would very much like to maintain that. That means that I am very likely to go into Matchday 11 spreading the risk within my squad. I also have to deal with seven players who have exited the competition using just five transfers. Although that is the case, I'm not really concerned. This is because I can still bring in all of the key players using the five free transfers.

In addition, the only thing the loss of two moves does to me is limit my options in terms of risks or punts. As long as you have the key players, I don't think there is any need to go into the new round with 15, especially if hits are required to do that. Below is the moves I could take in the lead up to the new round. The equal split in terms of all defences could be key to holding ground. Backing the most reliable attackers from both Manchester City and Real Madrid could also be key to sustaining rank.