World Cup Fantasy managers invested in Brazil continued to reap the rewards as they won another match with a clean sheet intact.
The Fantasy community also sat up and took notice of penalty-taking centre-back Andreas Granqvist (£5.0m) once again, while his other defensive colleagues also put themselves on our radar.
Elsewhere, there was a bitter end for Germany’s assets as they crashed out of the World Cup to South Korea.
We’ve got all the latest goals, assists and Fantasy talking points as Groups E and F came to a close yesterday…
SERBIA 0-2 BRAZIL
TOP-SCORING PLAYERS
- Thiago Silva (£6.0m) – 12 points
- Paulinho (£8.5m) – 8 points
- Philippe Coutinho (£9.0m) – 6 points
- Filipe Luis (£6.0m) – 6 points
- Alisson (£6.0m) – 6 points
- Joao Miranda (£5.5m) – 6 points
- Fagner (£5.0m) – 6 points
- Neymar (£12.0m) – 5 points
Philippe Coutinho (£9.0m) continued his impressive Fantasy run on Wednesday night by getting his third goal-involvement of the World Cup.
He provided the assist for Paulinho’s (£8.5m) opening strike having scored himself in both of Brazil’s previous two matches.
Thiago Silva (£6.0m) emerged as this match’s top-scorer heading home a Neymar (£12.0m) corner in the second-half and keeping a clean sheet.
The assist for Neymar was his second Fantasy return of the tournament after he lost some ownership between Gamerounds 2 and 3. Although he will have to step-up his output in the knockout rounds if he is to compete with Coutinho for a place in our squads given the disparity in price.
Brazil’s second shut-out of the tournament handed more returns to their defence, including the budget-price defender Fagner (£5.0m) who filled in for Danilo (£5.5m) once again. Filipe Luis (£6.0m) also claimed all six points after he came on for the injured Marcelo (£6.5m) in the tenth minute.
SERBIA XI (4-2-3-1): Stojkovic; Kolarov, Veljkovic, Milenkovic, Rukavina; Matic, Milinkovic-Savic; Kostic (Radonjic 82′), Ljajic (Zivkovic 75′), Tadic; Mitrovic (Jovic 89′).
BRAZIL XI (4-3-3): Alisson; Marcelo (Filipe Luis 10′), Joao Miranda; Thiago Silva, Fagner; Coutinho (Renato Augusto 80′), Casemiro, Paulinho (Fernandinho 66′); Neymar, Gabriel Jesus, Willian.
SWITZERLAND 2-2 COSTA RICA
TOP-SCORING PLAYERS
- Blerim Dzemaili (£7.0m) – 7 points
- Joel Campbell (£7.0m) – 6 points
- Kendall Waston (£4.5m) – 6 points
- Josip Drmic (£6.5m) – 5 points
- Breel Embolo (£6.0m) – 5 points
Switzerland’s 2-2 draw with Costa Rica had little effect on the larger Fantasy landscape, although it featured a crazy final few minutes
The 3.5 percent of managers in possession of Xherdan Shaqiri (£8.5m) were denied any goal-involvements while the 2.6 percent invested in penalty-taking defender Ricardo Rodriguez (£5.5m) had their clean sheet wiped out and lost another point for two goals conceded.
Of the assets involved in goals, none of them had more backing than Swiss forward Breel Embolo, sat in just 0.3 percent of squads.
He was the assister for Blerim Dzemaili’s (£7.0m) opening goal in the first-half, heading down for the midfielder to fire home from close range.
Kendall Waston (£4.5m) headed in an equaliser from a Joel Campbell (£7.0m) corner. Josip Drmic (£6.5m) smashed Switzerland back in front in the 88th minute from a Denis Zakaria (£5.0m) cross, but the game still had more drama to come.
Costa Rica were awarded a penalty after Bryan Ruiz (£7.5m) tumbled in the box after a challenge from Rodriguez, but it was overturned after a VAR review.
Then, Campbell was brought down in the area by Zakaria and this time a spot-kick was given without the need for a video check.
Ruiz’s penalty hit the bar but still ended up in the back of the net after it hit the back of Yann Sommer’s (£5.0m) head. Officially it went down as a missed penalty for Ruiz and an own-goal for Sommer, which took another one point off every Swiss defender.
SWITZERLAND XI (4-2-3-1): Sommer; Rodriguez, Akanji, Schar, Lichsteiner; Xhaka, Behrami (Zakaria); Embolo, Dzemaili, Shaqiri (Lang 81′); Gavranovic (Drmic 69′).
COSTA RICA (3-4-2-1): Navas; Waston, Gonzalez, Acosta; Oviedo, Guzman (Azofeifa 91′), Borges, Gamboa (Smith 93′); Colindres (Wallace 81′), Ruiz; Campbell.
SOUTH KOREA 2-0 GERMANY
TOP-SCORING PLAYERS
- Kim Young-gwon (£4.5m) – 12 points
- Jo Hyeon-woo (£4.5m) – 8 points
- Jonas Hector (£6.5m) – 6 points
- Jang Hyun-soo (£5.0m) – 6 points
- Yun Young-sun (£4.5m) – 6 points
- Lee Yong (£4.5m) – 6 points
- Hong Chul (£4.0m) – 6 points
- Son Heung-min (£8.0m) – 5 points
- Ju Se-jong (£5.0m) – 4 points
Kim Young-gwon (£4.5m) and Son Heung-min (£8.0m) scored the late goals as Germany were eliminated from the World Cup.
The match was a tight affair initially with the reigning champions dominating possession and missing several chances to score.
Korean goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo (£4.5m) made some outstanding saves late on earning himself two additional points.
In the last 10 minutes Germany pushed on for a winner leaving themselves exposed at the back. But the opening goal came from some poor defending of a set-piece, Kim Young-gwon turning in at the far-post from a corner.
It was initially ruled out for offside but a VAR review correctly overturned it once it had been confirmed the Korean man had received the ball from Toni Kroos’ (£9.0m) sliced clearance.
Now trailing, Manuel Neuer (£6.0m) pushed higher up the pitch so a stoppage time clearance from Ju Se-jong (£5.0m) left him completely unable to stop Son finishing into an empty net.
South Korea XI (4-3-3): Jo; Lee Yong, Yun, Hong, YG Kim; Jang, Jung, Koo (Hwang 55’ | Go 78’); Lee Jae-Sung, Moon (Ju 68’), Son.
Germany XI (4-2-3-1): Neuer; Kimmich, Sule, Hummels, Hector (Brandt 77’); Khedira (Gomez 57’), Kroos; Goretzka (Muller 63’), Ozil, Reus; Werner.
MEXICO 0-3 SWEDEN
TOP SCORING PLAYERS
- Andreas Granqvist (£5.0m) – 12 points
- Ludwig Augustinsson (£5.0m) – 12 points
- Robin Olsen (£5.0m) – 7 points
- Viktor Claesson (£5.5m) – 6 points
- Viktor Lindelof (£5.0m) – 6 points
- Mikael Lustig (£5.5m) – 5 points
- Marcus Berg (£8.0m) – 4 points
Sweden completely blew Mexico away to claim the top spot in Group E with some more help from their World Cup Fantasy star Andreas Granqvist (£5.0m).
Sweden had claims for a penalty waved away twice in an even first-half. Javier Hernandez (£8.5m) was accused of using his arm to control the ball
Left-back Ludwig Augustinsson (£5.0m) gave Sweden the lead in the 50th minute. His scuffed shot from inside the penalty area was assisted by Viktor Claesson (£5.5m), his second of the tournament.
Sweden finally got the penalty they wanted in the second half when Marcus Berg (£8.0m) was brought down in the area by Hector Moreno (£5.0m).
Granqvist stepped up for the second time this tournament and scored from the spot once again. That’s now five penalties he has netted from a possible five attempted in qualifying and the finals combined.
The final goal of a quite spectacular result came in the 73rd minute when Edson Alvarez (£4.5m) turned into his own net. The cross came in from the right and the Mexican defender got the final touch after Ola Toivonen’s flick-on.
Mexico XI (4-3-3): Ochoa; Alvarez, Salcedo, Moreno, Gallardo (Fabian 64’); Guardado (Corona 75’), Herrera, Layun (Peralta 88’); Vela, Lozano, Hernandez.
Sweden XI (4-4-2): Olsen; Lustig, Lindelof, Granqvist, Augustinsson; Larsson (Svensson 56’), Ekdal (Hiljemark 79’), Claesson, Forsberg; Berg (Thelin 66’), Toivonen.
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.
