The previous round of Champions League fixtures turned into a tale of two hat-trick heroes, with Tottenham’s Harry Kane and Sevilla’s Wissam Ben Yedder both taking home the match ball.
Kane’s treble proved enough to see off a gritty APOEL Nicosia in a 3-0 win for the Premier League side away in Cyprus whilst it was Ben Yedder’s trio of goals that was the difference against Maribor.
With both men in fine goal-scoring form after their exploits in the previous round, who should you look at selecting for your Draft Fantasy Champions League squad ahead of match day three next month?
The obvious choice would be to punt for Kane straight away, with the England striker in the middle of a rampant run of form which saw him find the net 13 times in September for club and country.
Against APOEL he was at his clinical best, needing just one chance to slot the ball home to ease pressure on his side, and he went on to score three goals with his sole three shots on target all night.
This followed a sublime individual performance against Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund a fortnight before, where his double – both excellently well taken goals – proved to be the difference.
And this is where Kane is strides ahead of Ben Yedder, as the 24-year-old is able to stand up and be counted in the big games, scoring when it matters and putting himself on the same level as Europe’s elite strikers.
To put it bluntly, his five goals already this campaign have earnt Spurs four points.
Kane’s goal-scoring record speaks for itself, scoring 38 goals in 2017, whilst last round’s hat-trick was his sixth treble of the calendar year.
However, there is certainly a case for having the Sevilla man in your side, instead of Kane, not least due to the fact that the La Liga team have a much easier route to the knock-out stages than Tottenham do.
Whilst Spurs go into battle with the likes of Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla are in a group with minnows Maribor, a below-par Spartak Moscow side and a defensively weak Liverpool.
In scoring five times in their opening two Champions League matches they’ve shown that there is potential for goals in Group E and it is unlikely that this will stop in their remaining four group games.
If Sevilla are scoring goals, you can almost count on Ben Yedder being involved, with the 27-year-old contributing four of the five successful European strikes so far, in a lesson on how to be a clinical striker.
The French forward has already had seven shots in his opening two matches – all of which have forced the goalkeeper into action – and he will be licking his lips at a double header against Spartak.
His trickery and acceleration in and around the opposition penalty area makes him one of Sevilla’s most potent threats, whilst his natural instinct to be in the right place at the right time gets results.
It is also a likely story that he’s a widely unselected player in the Draft Fantasy game, and if it is a smart and under-rated pick you are looking for – that is a solid points scorer – opt for Ben Yedder.
Yet, it is hard to look past the unstoppable Kane at the minute and, whilst he may have a tougher group to face in the upcoming months, he is a world-class striker and will undoubtedly score goals.
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