CL First Round Preview

The 2024 BFFA Champions League finally kicks off Saturday!
Eight matches showcasing the best teams of Season 10.
Here we go!

Links below will take you to the live GW4 scores. These will be active after the Saturday 11am deadline.

The tournament opens with a match that has been over eight years in the making. Goleta Hotspur haven’t faced Vanishing Spray since the Premier League’s inaugural season but this weekend, after two very successful campaigns, they are thrown back together in the hunt for the Champions League glory. Way back in that 2015/16 season, Spray won three of their four meetings and finished sixth. Had they won that fourth game, they would have finished third.

SkyPlayerInFPL had a very difficult start last season. They lost five of their opening six games and spent the first twenty-two weeks of the season in the bottom half. However, they finished the season strong, won their final seven games straight and went on to win the Runners-Up Trophy, some 20 matchpoints better than De Bruyne Trousers. DBT had a very different season – they began with seven weeks at #1, never fell out of the top four, also had a nice run of wins mid-season (6 straight, 9 from 10 GW22-31) and also finished runners-up. Both have started well this season, two wins from three; the other games – DBT drew their second match & SkyPlayer lost last week by just two points. Tight stuff.

De Bruyne Trousers – Championship
Goleta Hotspur – League One
SkyPlayerInFPL – League One
Vanishing Spray FC – Premier League

The first of two CL matches between league rivals is the first meeting between Uncle Monty and Bigger than Brolin. BtB, the 10th-season stalwarts, are entering their sixth Champions League and hoping to better the 2022 run that took them as far as the Semi-Final. Uncle Monty’s only previous Champions League entry resulted in a 1-5 disaster. But after two consecutive league titles, it would be foolish to think that a team of such pedigree would struggle here again.

The other two Group B teams, who have never shared a league, have in fact played three times before. In Whiskey de Bruyne‘s first season, the pair clashed in the BFFA Cup Third Round. Smash & Grab controlled the game, winning out 49-30, and continued on as far as the Semis, losing to eventual winners MFF. Later that year, after the summer break, the two were drawn together into the 2023 Champions League. S&G won the group, taking all six points from WdB – winning 50-30 & 42-23 in back-to-back weeks.
It appears that both teams are backing Cole Palmer to do well this season, so this match could pivot on how well Robertson & Konaté (WdB) close out Chris Wood (S&G). But even if they can, what else do WdB need to do to match such dominant opponents?!

Bigger than Brolin – Championship
Smash & Grab – Premier League
Uncle Monty – Championship
Whiskey De Bruyne – Championship

It’s a tall order going up against the Premier League Champions on any week, but this weekend Alleviate the Tedium are facing a Housewives Favourite side who are flying high at the top of the Bestish table. And no wonder with Haaland, Joao Pedro and Mbuemo scoring for fun. So what’s the antidote to great attacking side? Maybe the answer lies in the Liverpool and Villa defences. See Allison & Konaté vs Forest (who could not score against the Reds last season) and Konsa & Digne against an under-performing Everton.

Both Route 57 and The Phenoms will be without key players for their CL opener. The newly-promoted League One side will not have the use of Kepa as he is ineligible to play against Chelsea. Meanwhile, the PL R-U’s will be without Declan Rice due to that misunderstanding against Brighton.
This will be R57’s fourth crack at the whip and are looking to put to bed the ghost of 2022, where the were one matchpoint away from qualifying – S9,GW8 L36-37 to Barons who finished 3 points above with a worse FPts total. Pain like that doesn’t quickly fade.
The Phenoms, as we mentioned many times before, had to come through the qualifying stage and will present a hugely entertaining unknown element in this season’s tournament. Is anyone else backing Zirkzee and Chris Wood to score again on Saturday?

Alleviate the Tedium – League One
Housewives Favourite – Premier League
Route 57 FC – Premier League
The Phenoms – League One

The 2022 Champions League champions Gloopy Yarbles are beginning their bid to reclaim the title against two-time BFFA Cup winners StillluvQPR. Across Seasons 8 & 9, Gloopy played Stillluv eight times, winning seven of those; Stillluv commanded a big 90-64 win in S8,G36 that probably saved them from relegation. Today the sides are no less than twenty-seven places apart but don’t be fooled by the gap between the top of the Premier League and the L1 danger zone, StillluvQPR will demonstrate time after time that they are not to be underestimated.

HLAB have been steadily climbing the world rankings since they joined up. They recently reached lofty new heights – to fourth place with a (low-scoring) win over their CL opponents and current holders Sporting Wicker Park. SWP themselves recently relinquished the #1 spot in the World Rankings when they lost to HLAB 35-24 just before the international break. Most of the damage there was done by Havertz (8), B.Silva (7) and Konaté (6) (yes, him again!), but in fairness Wicker Park normally have a lot more to show for themselves. Only Liam Delap offered more than a deuce last time out. Expect to see a more fiery return when this rematch of last season’s CL SF begins.

Gloopy Yarbles – Premier League
HLAB – Premier League
Sporting Wicker Park – Premier League
StillluvQPR – League One