The last three games of Matchday 2 are played out this evening as Fantasy managers start firming up plans for tomorrow’s deadlines. First up this evening, Belgium and Russia will be hoping to improve upon their previous displays after both sides relied on substitutes to find the net last time around:
Belgium: Courtois; Alderweireld, Van Buyten, Kompany, Vermaelen; De Bruyne, Witsel, Fellaini; Mertens, Lukaku, Hazard
Russia: Akinfeev; Kozlov, Berezutskiy, Ignashevich Kombarov; Glushakov, Fayzulin, Shatov; Samedov, Kokorin, Kanunnikov
Marc Wilmots makes a trio of changes for today’s match, with three Tottenham players making way. Jan Vertonghen is replaced by Thomas Vermaelen at left-back, while further up the pitch Nacer Chadli and Mousa Dembele are omitted from the central midfield three, with Marouane Fellaini and Dries Mertens handed a chance to impress after both climbed off the bench to notch against Algeria. Vincent Kompany recovers from a knock in time to start and Romelu Lukaku leads the line once again despite a less than impressive display in the opener.
For the Russians, Fabio Capello made a couple of alterations to his starting XI. Andrei Eschenko drops out for Alexei Kozlov at right-back, while former Chelsea player Yuri Zhirkov drops out for Maksim Kanunnikov in the front three – this could potentially see the versatile Alexander Kokorin shifted left to accommodate the switch. Despite grabbing a goal within minutes of appearing off the bench last time around, Alexander Kerzhakov remains amongst the substitutes for Russia.
After that, South Korea square up to Algeria in the other Group H fixture at 8pm. The former will be buoyed by their opening draw against the Russians and Lee Keun-ho seems favourite to replace Park Chu-yung in the lone forward role after notching as a second-half sub last time around. Algeria need to pick themselves up after suffering a late loss to the Belgians and will be looking for Sofiane Feghouli to find the net once again and steer them into the points, after the Valencia man spoiled Thibaut Courtois’ clean sheet with a coolly-converted spot-kick in Matchday 1.
The last game of Matchday 2 takes place at 11pm, with Cristiano Ronaldo centre stage. After being battered 4-0 by Germany in their opener, Portugal need to pick up the points against a USA side that chalked up a win over Ghana in their opener. With Pepe suspended and Fabio Coentrao ruled out due to a thigh injury, Paulo Bento’s side have half of their first-choice back-four missing – Clint Dempsey will be optimistic of netting again, having opened the scoring in last week’s 2-1 triumph over the Africans.
