Leader of the Matchday 2, Day 2 Captain Poll Cristiano Ronaldo has a shocker as Nicklas Bendtner vindicates his sky-high self-worth by bagging a brace in this evening’s early kick off. Mario Gomez proves himself the equal of the mighty Dane by notching twice in Germany’s win over Holland to take his tally to three for the tournament:
Those who chose to hand Ronaldo the armband will be desperate to move it on after the Portugal captain picked up a late yellow card and produced a meagre two point armband return. Fantasy managers who captained Bendtner or Gomez will no doubt choose to stick with a 20 point haul but with plenty of other favourites all failing, the majority will be twisting rather than holding what they currently have. Thomas Muller, Mesut Ozil and Lukas Podolski all stumbled in tonight’s match, while Robin Van Persie’s goal and Wesley Sneijder’s assist is unlikely to see either keep the armband. As usual, we’ve rolled out the Captain Poll ahead of tomorrow’s couple of matches.
Group C offers plenty of options for Fantasy managers, with both the favourites keen to pick up their first three points. Following their friendly hammering at the hands of Russia, Italy looked far more resilient after moving to a 3-5-2 formation against Spain. While Cesare Prandelli is likely to maintain the same shape, has Antonio Di Natale done enough to earn a starting role? The Udinese man scored just three minutes after coming off the bench as a replacement for Mario Balotelli and may well oust the City man in the first XI, though his manager could choose to utilise him from the bench once again instead. Antonio Cassano had more shots than any team mate and was joint-top for chances created in the 1-1 with Spain, while Andrea Pirlo’s eye for a killer pass helped provide an assist.
Croatia begin tomorrow’s early game as group leaders after their demolition of Republic of Ireland. Mario Mandzukic’s brace in the opener has already seen his cost increase from 6.0 to 6.1 in the McDonald’s game, while Nikica Jelavic’s goal has also prompted a similar price hike – can the duo breach a backline that conceded just two goals in qualification?
The later game sees Spain square up to the Republic of Ireland, with the defending champions looking for their first win of the tournament. Vicente Del Bosque’s decision to go without a recognised striker for the Italy game promotes Cesc Fabregas in our thinking, after the former Arsenal man started as a false nine in the 1-1 draw. Xavi created eight goalscoring opportunities in the group opener, while Andres Iniesta was the main goal threat with five attempts against Cesare Prandelli’s men.
Del Bosque is likely to hand one of his forwards a sub role at the very least but again, there’s doubt here – will he take a punt on Fernando Torres once more or will the likes of Fernando Llorente or Alvaro Negredo be given some game time? After their defeat to Croatia, the Irish have it all to do. Giovanni Trapattoni will be hoping to stifle the Spanish and hit on the counter, with Robbie Keane the likeliest candidate to find the net and Aiden McGeady’s set-piece duties also posing a threat.
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