Champions League Daily Fantasy Helper: Wednesday 10/24/18

The Champions League, the best soccer competition on the planet, is back, and FanDuel is offering daily fantasy contests for the entirety of the campaign. Wednesday's main slate starts at 3 p.m. EST and will not include the two 12:55 p.m. matches.

Here's the full main slate.

Liverpool are the cat's meow of this slate. The Reds have implied win odds of 94.1%, per Paddy Power, and they are 3.0-goal favorites with a 3.5-goal implied total. Yowzers. Elsewhere, PSG have implied win odds of 71.4%, and they are a 1.5-goal favorite. Barcelona are the only other team favored by at least a goal as they are a 1.0-goal favorite against Inter Milan.

For those who last played DFS during the 2017-18 UCL campaign, FanDuel has made some changes to their scoring system, so make sure you're up to date on how the new settings impact things.

Let's go through the four positions and look at some players to target at various price points.

Forwards to Target

Roberto Firmino ($10,500) -- Firmino was rested at the weekend, playing just the final 15 minutes, so he should be good to go in a delectable spot at home versus Red Star Belgrade, who lost 6-1 at PSG last round. Liverpool are massive 3.0-goal favorites, the largest on the slate, and they carry a 3.5-goal implied total. The Reds are going to be popular -- in addition to the dope matchup, they aren't super expensive -- and they could rip Red Star to shreds, so you've got to get exposure to them. Firmino could see less ownership than Mo Salah and Sadio Mane, his partners up front (more on them shortly), and his all-around contributions give him a nice floor. The upside is there, too. He's got 2 goals and 2 assists in 8 Premier League starts this season, and he totaled 10 goals and 7 assists in 13 UCL starts a year ago.

Neymar ($13,500) -- PSG are in Paris against an attack-minded Napoli side, and they are 1.5-goal favorites with a 2.25-goal implied total. Neymar is the slate's most expensive player, but this is a ceiling spot for him. He's got eight goals and three assists in eight starts in Ligue 1 play, and also working in Neymar's favor is his role as PSG's penalty taker. Of course, PSG have two other stud attackers in Kylian Mbappe ($12,500) and Edinson Cavani ($11,000), so you can go any number of ways with the Parisians front three, which have teamed up for 22 goals and 7 assists thus far in domestic league play. PSG are bulldozing Ligue 1, as you'd expect, netting 37 goals through 10 matches. Napoli are by no means a pushover, but on their day, this PSG side can overpower anyone in Europe.

Luis Suarez ($11,000) -- With Lionel Messi out, Suarez will take on an elevated role for Barcelona. Last Saturday, Suarez netted a goal and dished out an assist in a game in which Messi exited in the first half with an arm injury. Suarez's DFS stock gets a nice boost from the fact he'll now take penalties and possibly some free kicks. Barca are undoubtedly a weaker side sans Messi, but they're still a 1.0-goal home favorite versus Inter Milan.

Mauro Icardi ($9,500) -- The absence of Messi will have rippling impacts all across the Inter-Barca clash, and one of them is that Inter will surely feel much better about their chances with Barca missing the world's best player. With Messi out for the duration of the second half on Saturday, Sevilla went at Barcelona and netted two goals, and it could've had more if not for a superb display by goalie Marc-Andre Ter Stegen. Icardi -- a former Barca youth player -- has four goals and two assists in six Serie A starts this year, and he'll likely be involved if Inter score at the Camp Nou.

Midfielders to Target

Mo Salah ($10,000) and Sadio Mane ($9,000) -- Mane and Salah have each scored four goals in EPL play, and they could run wild on Red Star. Mane is expected to play after sitting with a thumb ailment during the weekend, and although Liverpool's front three will likely be chalk, they're a terrifying fade in a match in which the Reds very well could score five or six goals. Hitting on the right Liverpool guys could be the difference between contending for a GPP and watching your lineups circle the drain.

Philippe Coutinho ($11,500) -- Similar to the aforementioned Suarez, Coutinho's stock gets a lift with Messi out. Barca will desperately miss Messi's playmaking ability, and Coutinho could be asked to drop deeper to try to assume some of Messi's playmaking duties. Coutinho is also in the mix to take on more free-kick and corner responsibilities. He's got three goals and one assist this season in La Liga play, and he's already got a goal and two assists in two UCL matches.

Daniel Caligiuri ($8,000) -- Caligiuri's free-kick duties make him an appealing GPP play, and this isn't a bad spot for Schalke as they are on the road at Galatasaray, with the match listed as a pick'em. Schalke are currently 18th in the Bundesliga and may be the worst team in the UCL from one of Europe's big five leagues. That -- along with the fact he's not cheap -- could help Caligiuri fly under the radar, and he makes a lot of sense in GPPs if you can make his salary fit.

Defenders to Target

Thomas Meunier ($7,500) and Presnel Kimpembe ($5,000) -- Meunier should be bombing forward from his right-back spot and is a fantastic stacking partner with one of PSG's front three. He hasn't been crossing the ball as much this season, but he's got two goals and two assists in six starts in Ligue 1. He's got as much upside as any defender on the slate, and with Napoli's implied total sitting at just 0.75, the clean-sheet odds are nice, too. Kimpembe, a center-back, is a longshot to get in on any goal-scoring actions, but he's cheap, should contribute some defensive stats and gives you a pretty good shot at a clean sheet.

Andrew Robertson ($6,500) and Trent Alexander-Arnold ($5,000) -- Rostering either of these two allows you to double dip with Liverpool, giving you access to a full-back who will get involved in the attack as well as someone who will record a clean-sheet bonus if the Reds keep Red Star -- who own a 0.5-goal implied total -- from scoring. They make sense as a stacking partner with one of the Reds' front three, and if you're going with Alisson in goal, you can grab a Liverpool defender as a correlation play in hopes of doubling up on the clean-sheet bonus. Alexander-Arnold trails Robertson in most attacking stats, but the difference is small enough that his $1,500 discount makes him awfully appealing.

Alex Telles ($5,500) -- Telles continues to be under-priced. He's got 15.4 and 33.4 FanDuel points in his two UCL appearances this season, and he created five chances with one assist against Galatasaray in his last outing. Porto are 0.5-goal favorites at Lokomotiv Moscow, and Telles is a great way to get some cap relief without sacrificing much upside.

Clement Lenglet ($4,500) -- Lenglet checks some boxes this week. With Samuel Umtiti out, Lenglet should start at center-back for Barcelona, and he'll likely be a little busier than usual with Messi sidelined. Inter have a 1.0-goal implied total, so while the clean-sheet odds aren't great, a shutout isn't out of the question, either. There isn't much upside here, but the cheap salary is nice on a slate with so many attacking stars, and Lenglet's floor isn't too bad.

Goalies to Target

Alisson ($5,500) -- Alisson has the best win odds as well as the best odds for a clean sheet, and he can net 17 FanDuel points without making a save if he gets a clean-sheet win. The downside is that if he concedes a goal, he'll probably post a low score as he's unlikely to need to make many saves. Still, Red Star's 0.5-goal implied total is the lowest on the slate, and Liverpool have allowed just three goals in nine EPL matches, including a home blanking of high-powered Manchester City.

Alexander Nübel ($4,000) -- The cheapest expected starting keeper, Nübel gives you a lot of cap flexibility. He is expected to start for Schalke after Ralf Fahrmann was injured last weekend. A matchup at Galatasaray isn't too scary as Galatasaray carry a mere 1.25-goal implied total. If Nübel gets a win or a clean sheet, he'd be well worth his minimum salary. If he gets both, he could help you take down a GPP.

Austan Kas is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Austan Kas also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username akas247. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.