Two teams, one the in the Championship and the other in the Champions League. Both are top of their groups after one game after 5-2 and 9-2 wins.

How's everyone else getting on?

Both teams in the CL, my one mainly focussed on this comp drew 14-14, and my ISO team won 10-3 and is top thanks to the other pair playing out a 23-17 game

The first week of the group stages was quite disastrous, to say the least. All my three teams lost

First my ISO team (CL). My weekly score of 11 wasn't enough to match my opponents 20 points. Mainly thanks to his/her strong defence with Terry, Huth and Clichy and the 6 points from Tevez. Think it's time to swap Drogba for Tevez, but that's another matter.

Secondly my "main" team Zeeland Boppe (CL). This one was destroyed 29-15 Most of the opponents points came from two unlikely candidates; Ivanovic and Walcott.. Ivanovic scored a total of 4 points in his last 11 games and now 8 in only one game! Same goes for Theo, but this was far worse. He only managed 5 points in his last 13 games for Arsenal and guess what? now he manages 7 in one single game I have Fabregas AND Nasri in my team and they scored zip zero zilch nada nothing.

Third my other team "Brabant Boppe" (Championship). This one also suffered a bitter defeat 29-13. Where do all those 29 points scoring teams come from? Friend Theo was also present here to do his destructive work, helped by Tevez, Toure and Bardsley. I did manage to outscore the other two teams in my league (10-8) so maybe there's still something in it for me there.

Thankfully my two "Boppe" teams are still in the top 3 of the Double Team Championship and Zeeland Boppe is 6th in the Gold/Silver Championship so there's still plenty to worry about

Just seen that 14-14 draw was with me Reds Sorry about that. Not paid these leagues much attention to be honest, but just noticed prizes on offer and will be doing now! Got a decent number of subs left in that one, let's hope we can both sneak through. Seems I've got 2 champions league teams and 1 Europa.

1 win (champs league), 1 draw, 1 loss so far

So it was

This "side-competition" was historically a big focus in OFL, I believe a few years ago the top prize in the CL tier was higher than the season-long league. Different now but it's still a decent prize and I think plenty of managers give it good attention.

Looks like the two of us have plenty of transfers in hand over our two competitors in this group, let's hope we can both get safely through, hopefully before we meet again in week 6

My Championship side is stuck at 11-11 with one game remaining. We both have Drogba, but I also have Matty Taylor. I'm not convinced he'll score points tonight, so who should I bring in? I can lose Arteta and afford Malouda or Essien (but not Lampard). Any suggestions?

My Champions League side is 19-5 up

My three teams all lost their first game so I would be happy with just one point
Think it depends on the standings in your league whether to risk a transfer. The first two teams will proceed and even if you finish third you will go to the next round, be it one league lower.. but at least you'll progress.
I don't know how many transfers you still have, but think of the following scenario (which happens to me most of the time ) : Transfer Arteta out and Malouda in, Malouda doesn't score any points on the night and is substituted at half time. Your score will still equal your opponents and in the end you're 'stuck' with Malouda and used one valuable transfer.
And there are still four games left, so I would just go for the draw with the slight chance of Matt Taylor getting some points.

That's a good call. I thought this group stage was just 3 matches, turns out it's 6! So I think I'll settle for a minimum one point... unless my oppomemt brings in someone (we've both got 5 transfers left this month, and I think 12 overall).

Currently winning 17-8 with my A Cole to his Drogba to go. Hopefully I'll be safe unless the Ivorian goes mental tonight.

It will only leave me third in my Champions League group after a very poor defeat last week has left me struggling on goal difference.

At this point I must admit to breaking one of the FISO commandments. I hadn't bothered reading the rules for the group stages and didn't realise they'd changed it this year so the third placed team goes into the knockouts of the tier below. I think I like that rule, as it mimics what happens in the real Champions League.

Ditto

Would still much rather get through in the CL though, with higher prize money and also 50% more teams competing in all the lower tiers' final stage because of this extra drop-down.

My main CL team burnt two trannies tonight to match my opponent with Malouda and Elmander, to secure a 1-point victory and top spot in the league, as opposed to risking a loss (which as it's turned out Malouda would have ensured) and ending up bottom of the pile. Early days but will make a big difference, and had saved transfers before Christmas for this reason

Need Bolton to score or I will have lost 2 in a row in the champions league.

Won with both my teams and hope it stays that way, but if I'm reading it right the week was from 17th to 23rd so Bolton/Chelsea shouldn't count, but since I feel it should include all teams for a given week I hope it stays as is.

Top of Europa League with 17 transfers left.

Schoolboy error didn't realise my opponent had Cech on the bench, so 11-11 becomes a 14-17 defeat.

Surprisingly up to second in my CL group as a result of having scored 1 more point in the For column than the guy in third; otherwise we have identical records. I get the feeling it's going to a be a tight group.

Overall, I'm still just outside the top 100 but not top of my mini-league with only 10 transfers left this season. I guess that will have to be my priority and not this European nonsense.

Just realised (before making any transfers) that games this midweek DON'T count towards the group games

Is that right? I must admit that I hadn't focused on these group competitions at all until I was looking around the site in an idle moment the other day. The rules seem to say that gameweeks run from Tuesday to Monday, so wouldn't tonight's games have counted in whatever gameweek we've just started, it being a Tuesday? Also, is there anywhere on the site which tells us what number gameweek we're actually in?

Not used to all this at all, but presumably some players - where they have dropped behind in the main competition will then focus on the Premier Leagues and this will be the main factor in dictating their decisions on when transfers are made? Seems quite early to be using a lot of transfers for that purpose, even so - as you would need some for the final run in ideally (there again, you obviously have to qualify for the run in in the first place, which I can see is easier said than done...)

You're right but since there are no Prem games this weekend they've discounted this week for the purposes of the Champs League etc group competitions. If you look ahead you'll also see a couple more FA Cup weeks being skipped, as well as the Carling Cup final week. The six weeks that actually count for the group phases only conclude in late March!


If you mean overall gameweek, the numbers across the top of the fixtures page are what you want. There are numbers 1-6 at the top of your Champ League/Europa/whatever league detail page to show you the weeks that count for that competition (and dates display when you click each number to see the fixtures).

Thank you, Reds - very helpful.

Currently winning my tie 42-27.

I have just Andy Cole to play today and he has Meireles, Piquionne, Terry and Malouda. So it's not game over but I'd be a tad unlucky to lose it from here. Given the way yesterday's games went, maybe I should expect it! A win for me would bring me level on points but I think I'd still be below him on GD.

Just a few mins to kick-off if anyone needs to recover a losing position.

I have re-christened Ashley as Andy. Thought everyone knew that?

Both my teams lost this weekend

Main team is still clinging on to second spot in a tight group, thanks to Northernmonkey sneaking his first win in the other game. None of the four teams have a points difference more/less than +/-3, and the best difference and best points scored amongst us all belong to the guy on the bottom

Certainly was a sneaky one 36-35 courtesy of Roger Johnson today keeps me in it, how tight is that group! ISO is my other CL side which also won 45-42, the other fella must be gutted That said I've had 2 wins out of 3 in that one and still only third.

Championship team lost heavily and is now bottom of a 6-6-3-3 league table. My Champions League team lost by 2 points but remains to of a 6-6-4-1.

A bit annoyed about the two point loss, as I'd worked out that I was two points behind going into Sunday, and we both had Malouda and Drogba. So first I bought in Keane, and then swapped Malouda for Merieles. I must have missed one of my opponents getting an assist.

Not having up-to-the-minute scores on this game is starting to pip me off

Won with no problems 42-30 in the end, which actually put me top of my 6-6-6-0 Champions League group. Andy Cole got no points, as predicted.

At the halfway point, I have to be confident of progress. Playing the same opponent next week, which is the way the real CL groups work I think.

Also now I'm in 68th overall, which is nice. One away from a good position!

Top of my CL group with 9 pts all the others have 3, no chicken counting yet though.
I have 12 transfers left, what about the rest of you?

Surprised to be winning 7-1 at the moment, definitely a low-scoring week. His Maliouda, Terry, Jagielka and Distin versus my ACole, Hangeland, Dempsey and Baines. Looks like it's going to go to the Monday game.

I have one team 5-3 up although it's very open tomorrow night. Need to hang on to keep in with a realistic shout of the top two in that one.

The other team is 9-13 down with a turnaround unlikely, and heading to the bottom of the league, but will still have qualification in my hands.

One CL side is top of its group now, 17-8 up . Should be ok but its my ISO side with no CHE/FUL players tomorrow.
The other CL side is 11-9 down, boils down to my Lamps/Torres v his Malouda so every chance of turning it round.