Navigating the Tournament Pages

Champions League – Group Stage

Champions League – Round of 16

Champions League – Finals

Europa League – Group Stage

Europa League – Rounds of 32 and 16

Europa League – Finals

Europa League Groups and Fixtures

The participants and groups for this season’s Europa League are now available. A summary of the groups can be found in the Europa League Home Page, which can be accessed through the menus similarly to the Champions League one as well as a quick link on the right hand side of our home page. By clicking the Group title you can access that group’s page, with their current standings as well as the previous and upcoming fixtures.

Finally, the links to everyone’s teams have been added for both competitions to allow you to track your opponent’s progress, if you so wish.

Good luck to everyone involved (except those in Group C obviously 😉 ) and remember the home team carries a 4 point home ground advantage during the group stages.

CL Fixtures and Group Pages

As a new feature for this season’s Champions League and Europa League competitions each competition will have its own home page. The Champions League version can be found here. The pages for each group can be accessed by either clicking the group label above the group standings or through the menus at the top of the website (Europe > Champions League > 2013-2014 Season). There will also be a quick link to the competitions’ home pages on the right-hand side of our website’s home page.

Within the group page you will find the current standings in the group as well as any previous results as they happen as well as upcoming fixtures. Obviously the CL fixtures have now been released so be sure to check your opponent for this weekend. Please note the 4 point home-ground advantage that is present within the group stages.

Good Luck to all the participants and the Europa League participants, groups, pages and fixtures will be released early tomorrow.

2012/13 Round-up

As the final deadline of FPL 2012/13 passes, many will be nervously awaiting not only the results in today’s games, but what the next 3 months will be like without Saturday morning deadlines etc. I would like to extend the thanks of the council, as well, I’m sure, the rest of the FFS community in thanking Mark, Granny, Jonty, Sir Paulos and all the other scouts who make the site possible, as well as Demi for his dedication to providing prompt team sheets, Parm for summarising them and finally Applebonkers for his tireless work providing us with his bap predictions.

Good luck to everyone in this week’s matches, especially to MJ6987 and Zep as they fight it out for the CL title, and Pratik and Acqua who fight it out for the Europa League title. A special thanks to Pratik for providing the scorecards for these competitions as well as those for the ICC Champions Trophy, in which England will face Pakistan for the title this afternoon.

Enough dilly dallying around, the best of luck to the one person on everyone’s mind, Evs. A mere 8 points behind top spot, he’s gone all Welsh on us and brought in Michu(c). With the four above him having captained Bale, this is a huge differential, but will it pay off and have him crowned as champion? Keep up to tabs with Evs’ progress with TM’s spreadsheet and Pratik’s top 10 scorecard.

Good luck again to everyone, and apologies if I left anyone off.

Champions League and Europa League – Semi Finals

Congratulations to those managers who have progressed through the Quarter Finals of their respective competitions, and commiserations to those eliminated

Champions League:

Zep claimed the biggest scalp in the Quarters as he eliminated FFS favourite for the FPL crown, Evs, to set up an all-German Semi Final with Canadian Football’s Hannover 96. Fellow deadzoners, Jinswick and Valar Morghulis had the closest match across both competitions with Jinswick victorious by 2 points. MJ6987 proved the RMT computer wrong as he vastly outscored the predictions to beat 1966’s Southampton by 8 points. Canadian Football proved far too much for Optimus’ Liverpool side to prove even with limited time for fantasy football, with family taking precedence, it is possible to perform admirably. The semi finals are as follows and will take part over the next two game weeks, GW36 and GW37. The spreadsheet can be found here.

 

Twente (Jinswick) vs Atalanta (MJ6987)

Bayern Munich (Zep) vs Hannover 96 (Canadian Football)

 

Europa League:

Parmtree’s Bilbao, sometimes known for his drunken rages on FFS, romped to victory over the hapless US Pescara, as they and their manager, Goonerdhanesh had back-to-back shockers to hand Parmtree a 78 point victory. Epic Fail lived up to his name as he and his Villans fell to Aatish’s Benfica. Council member Pratik progressed after a 12 point victory over his countryman, AK. Resident “Elite” of the site, Acquafresca continued his impressive record in H2H competitions as he overturned a 13 point deficit from the first leg to record a victory over Super Zlatan’s PSG. The semi finals are as follows and will take part over the next two game weeks, GW36 and GW37. The spreadsheet can be found here.

 

Benfica (Aatish) vs Olympiakos FC (Pratik)

Athletic Bilbao (Parmtree) vs Panathinaikos (Acquafresca)

Champions League – Matchday 5 Review – Groups E-H by Berbilly Gilmore

Group E

Evian (King Eric) 68 beat Bayern Munich (Zep) 64

The practically dead team that is King Eric’s pulled off another victory this week. Failing to make changes in four of the last five weeks his decision to leave the armband on Suarez ever since the DGW came up trumps this week. RVP, Mata, Michu, Walcott and Davies were common to both sides. Both managers captained players their opponent did not own; King Eric, Suarez and Zep, Bale. In the end, the additional 14 points King Eric gained from Suarez’s hat-trick over Bale’s goal was enough to overcome Zep’s home ground advantage and additional man.

Champions League – Matchday 3+4 Review – Groups E-H by Berbilly Gilmore

Group E

Evian (King Eric) vs Aston Villa (Epic Fail)

Evian 89 beat Aston Villa 87

Both managers had Michu, Mata, Walcott and RVP in this match-up. GJ and Rafael both produced for Epic Fail, while Szczesny delivered for King Eric. While Epic Fail had the edge in the defensive department, it was King Eric’s decision to go with Suarez(c) and Gerrard as his Liverpool coverage compared to Epic Fail’s Sturridge(c). The home advantage was just enough to see King Eric victorious in this match.

Aston Villa 56 beat Evian 21

King Eric failed to make any changes to his team from GW26 as he was restricted to just 7 players in this one. Zabaleta produced the goods for King Eric, but was easily outshone after Rafael’s thunderous strike gave Epic Fail 15 points. The key differentials in attack were Epic Fail’s Bale and Mata to King Eric’s nobody, as Epic Fail’s 11 men ran amok over King Eric’s 2-2-2 formation.

UCL Group A – Matchday 2 Preview (“The Group of Death”) by MJ6987

Going into the qualification group two weeks ago it was being billed in some quarters as the archetypal “Group of Death” with all four teams highly ranked in overall FPL standings. The first two weeks has done little to dispel this with each team picking up a win and a loss, sitting on 3 points a piece going into GW26 (the Liverpool / Swansea DGW!). Who will seize the advantage this week?

Stade Rennes (Sarnab) vs Hamburg SV (Herr Vets)

Sarnab is the relative newcomer in the Group, with just two previous seasons in FPL (108k and 27k last season), however he has kicked on this season and went into the Group stage in a strong position. Sarnab peaked in GW21 at 525 but has slipped slightly to 2,293 going into this week.

Looking at this week’s fixture the two line ups are very similar, the only differentials being:

Sarnab: Mignolet (RDG), Zabaletta (sot), Michu (QPR/LIV)…+4 pts home advantage

Vets: Begovic (RDG), Clichy (sot), Bale (NEW)…-4 points hit

With Sarnab’s home advantage coupled with Vets’ 4 point transfer hit, this is going to need something special from Bale to give Herr Vets a win.

Champions League – Matchday 2 Review – Groups E-H by Berbilly Gilmore

Group E

Bayern Munich (Zep) 72 beat Evian (King Eric) 50 

Zep continued his unbeaten start to his CL campaign as he comfortably saw off King Eric’s side, despite playing away from home. While both managers had Bale, Mata, Walcott and Michu in midfield, it was the ‘Power 5’ *shudders* of Zep which gave him an immeasurable edge as Fellaini’s brace was his highest scoring player. King Eric on the other hand forgot to use his January Wildcard and made no changes to his side as a total of five of his players didn’t play in GW25; Tevez, Berbatov, Sterling, Gunter and Cuellar. Being restricted to 9 men clearly limited the output of King Eric’s side.

Aston Villa (Epic Fail) 68 beat Bologna (Frazek) 61

Epic Fail bounced back from his Matchday 1 loss to Zep, pulling off a narrow victory over Frazek. Due to the injury to Remy on Friday, Frazek was forced to lineup 4-4-2 with Rangel coming off his bench for a whole 2 points. Both managers had Walcott, Fellaini and Michu in midfield, with the only differences being Frazek’s Lampard to Epic Fail’s Mata, while Frazek took the brave step of captaining Walcott over RVP. Both managers had Manchester United defenders as their only source of clean sheet points. The major difference in this tie was Epic Fail’s strikers; RVP(c), Podolski and Lambert all producing the goods to overwhelm Frazek’s side. Frazek’s biggest regret will likely be the benching of Bunn this week, which inevitably lost him this matchup.

Zep is the early frontrunner in this group sitting pretty on 6 points after the first two matches. Epic Fail and Frazek are both on 3 points, but Epic Fail sits in 2nd place due to winning their matchup this week. King Eric will need to up his game as he’s propping up the table without a point to his name. This week’s matches are Evian vs Aston Villa and Bologna vs Bayern Munich.

 

Champions League – Matchday 1 Review – Groups E-H by Berbilly Gilmore

Group E

Bayern Munich (Zep) 71 beat Aston Villa (Epic Fail) 39

Epic Fail lived up to his name this week, notching up his worst gameweek of the season. While both managers had RVP(c), Podolski, Mata, Walcott, Fellaini, Begovic and Gibbs, it was ultimately the differentials of Zep, who produced the goods. Baines, Bale and Davies all produced and along with home ground advantage, proved decisive for Zep. Epic Fail had Demel, Rafael and Joe Cole instead.

Bologna (Frazek) 66 beat Evian (King Eric) 59

Despite doing very well in recent weeks, King Eric hasn’t had much luck in H2Hs of late. This trend has continued in this fixture. He came into this match having lost all four of his H2Hs in season 2 of Ligue 1. Two vastly different teams faced off in this matchup. The managers had a mere 4 players common to both; RVP(c), Michu, Walcott and Cameron. Ultimately it was the timely explosion of Leighton Baines, which saw Frazek to victory in this one.

Next week’s matches are King Eric vs Zep and Epic Fail vs Frazek. Both of the favourites for this group, King Eric and Epic Fail will be looking to bounce back from their Matchday 1 losses in front of their own fans.