The final two matches of the 2018 World Cup group stage take place this evening, with England and Belgium facing off to decide who qualifies as Group G winners.
With both sides having already progressed to the knockout rounds (and with finishing in first place perhaps not quite as advantageous as usual), managers Gareth Southgate and Roberto Martinez have made sweeping changes to their starting line-ups with the round of 16 in mind.
Harry Kane (£11.0m) and Jesse Lingard (£7.5m), who both have Fantasy ownerships of above 10%, are among eight players rested by Southgate this evening. Jordan Pickford (£5.5m), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (£6.0m) and John Stones (£5.5m), who scored two goals in the 6-1 win over Panama, are the only England players to keep their place.
Romelu Lukaku (£10.0m), owned by over a fifth of McDonald’s FIFA managers, misses out with injury, while Thomas Meunier (£6.0m) and Kevin De Bruyne (£10.0m), both one booking away from suspension, have not been risked. Eden Hazard (£11.0m) is another casualty of rotation, with Thibaut Courtois (£6.0m) and Dedryck Boyata (£5.0m) the only Belgium players playing tonight who also featured in their 5-2 win over Tunisia.
Belgium and England have scored six big chances apiece going into this fixture, more than any other nation so far despite playing one match fewer than 28 other nations.
Panama and Tunisia, already eliminated, meet in Saransk in the other match to kick off at 7pm.
There is little interest from Fantasy managers in this dead rubber, with budget bench fodder accounting for most of the money invested in these two squads. Ferjani Sassi (£5.0m), who scored from the spot in Tunisia’s 2-1 defeat to England, is one to watch tonight given that Panama conceded two penalties in their 6-1 loss to the Three Lions.
England XI (3-5-2): Pickford; Jones, Stones, Cahill; Rose, Dier, Delph, Loftus-Cheek, Alexander-Arnold; Rashford, Vardy
Belgium XI (3-4-3): Courtois; Dendoncker, Boyata, Vermaelen; Chadli, Dembele, Fellaini, Tielemans; T. Hazard, Januzaj, Batshuayi
Panama XI (4-5-1): Penedo; Ovalle, Roman Torres, Escobar, Machado; Gomez, Godoy, Avila, Rodriguez, Barcenas; Gabriel Torres
Tunisia XI (4-3-3): Mathlouthi; Nagguez, Meriah, Bedoui, Haddadi; Sassi, Skhiri, Chaalali; F. Ben Youssef, Khazri, Sliti
World Cup Data
We’re delighted to offer World Cup data as an early addition to our regular season offering to help those playing Fantasy games over the summer.
We’ve secured Opta data, not only for the tournament itself, but also from the Qualifying Rounds for Europe and South America and for international friendlies involving the participating nations. This includes all the matches played right up to the tournament kick-off.
Just to stress, this World Cup offering comes packaged with the regular Fantasy Football Scout membership.
Check out this new trailer detailing the World Cup content below…
McDonald’s FIFA World Cup Fantasy
Join our McDonald’s FIFA World Cup Fantasy league ‘FantasyFootballScout’ using the code: HEWJPVYR
Fantasy iTeam
Fantasy Football Scout is supporting Fantasy iTeam, a free World Cup game available on a number of mobile devices, including iPhone, iPad, iPodTouch and Android. We have an official Fantasy Football Scout League open to UK users only, with a £1000 of Amazon vouchers to give out, split between the top three performers. There’s also the small matter of £10k worth of prizes available in the main competitions: Overall World Championship and Manager of the Gameround.
Click here for details and here to sign up.
Our League name is Fantasy Football Scout and the pin is 1887.
Please note, users must be over 18 and based in the UK to join our league.
