The final straight

Fives game to go and just four clubs left. The Champions League enters the semi-final stage next week and by this stage it can be extremely difficult to gain ground on opponents due to the small stock of players available.

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Nemanja Vidic goes close against FC Porto

After the four favourites progressed into the semis as expected, and if you used transfers to reflect this, you'll be well placed to make a couple of tweaks, dumping players from Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Villarreal and FC Porto to draft in those who are active.

Remember, though, you must build a squad capable of playing across two days. There's no point in loading up on Manchester United and Arsenal as one of those will be eliminated and you cannot afford to have wasted benched players.

Lesson number two is to concentrate on attackers. Defensive players can always cost you points, especially if you get a humdinger of a match like at Stamford Bridge in the quarter-finals. Replace your attacking dead-wood first then, if you have transfers to use, replace any defensive players who are out of the competition, injured or suspended.

With that in mind, here's a look at the top scoring players left in the competition for each position and their merits for selection.

GOALKEEPERS
Obviously at this stage just four first choice goalkeepers remain. Edwin van der Sar of Manchester United is clear with 18 points, more than double that of his nearest rival - Victor Valdes of Barcelona and Arsenal's Manuel Almunia. Where would you put your money for clean sheets? Certainly more towards United's game with Arsenal than Chelsea's match with Barca.

DEFENDERS
If you are going to stick with the belief that the Manchester United game has the best chance of a clean sheet or two then you will want to look towards players from Old Trafford and the Emirates. Of course, scoring so far for defenders is largely going to map to goalkeepers of the respective team.

That means Manchester United dominate the scoring for defenders with Nemanja Vidic top on 17 points. In fact, the top four defenders are all from United. If you are looking for value John O'Shea may well be the man to provide that. He has scored 15 points so far in this stage, just two fewer than Vidic (£6.5m) and the same as Rio Ferdinand (£7m) with a value of just £4.5m.

After the glut of United stars, Branislav Ivanovic is next mainly thanks to the two goals he scored at Anfield. Chelsea shipped goals too and with Barcelona to come it's hard to see defensive benefits, not to mention the fact that he is not guaranteed a place in the team.

MIDFIELDERS
Fantasy games are won in the centre of the park. With extra points for goals, key contributions, the added bonus of a clean sheet point and the only danger of minus points being for disciplinary matters, get it right in this area and you should always be a contender.

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Walcott has yet to play this term

You can forget about the top midfielder as Bayern's Franck Ribery has bowed out which, and there's no surprise, means one Cristiano Ronaldo is currently the Most Valuable Player. After sweeping the fantasy board last season he sits second in our Premier League game but, of active players at least, sits on top in Europe yet again.

Of course, Cristiano comes at a price and if you've not already forked out £12m for his 23 points you may struggle to juggle. Frank Lampard also has 23 points at a more palatable £10.5m so perhaps that is where the value lies.

There's few players to stand out after the Premier League pair. Steve Gerrard and Seydou Keita both have 17 points but the Liverpool skipper is out of the competition while Keita usually comes off the bench for Barca with Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Yaya Toure first choice. Xavi has scored 15 points but is perhaps a little expensive at £10m.

The real bargain could be Theo Walcott. Priced at £7m and coming back from injury, the England winger is the fifth highest-scoring midfielder still active and will play a vital role should the Gunners overcome Manchester United.

STRIKERS
Barcelona finally find a position to dominate after their victory over Bayern Munich. The La Liga side can boast three of the top four hitmen; Thierry Henry the joint top scorer with Chelsea's Didier Drogba on 25 points. Henry looks like being a hot tip up front as he costs only £9m. The problem, of course, is that at that price most managers will bring in the former Arsenal man when shuffling the pack.

The other Barcelona strikers up at the top are Lionel Messi (21) and Samuel Eto'o (20). Of those four, only Henry is priced lower than £10m.

They are clear of Robin van Persie (16), who is never more than a couple of games away from another niggle. The next best striker is Wayne Rooney on 13 points underlining the gulf between the form men and the rest of the forward players.