World Cup Fantasy managers may be short on options for the quarter-finals after Spain were eliminated by Russia.
Several Spanish assets were highly backed for this fixture but have now crashed out of the competition.
We’ve got all the goals, assists and Fantasy talking points from Sunday’s first knockout match.
SPAIN 1-1 RUSSIA (3-4 on penalties)
TOP-SCORING PLAYERS
- Artem Dzyuba (£8.0m) – 6 points
Russia’s famous penalty shoot-out win over Spain was largely a wasteland for Fantasy points. Only striker Artem Dzyuba (£8.0m) picked up any meaningful points returns in the fixture.
Meanwhile, the elimination of Spanish assets may have caused problems for Fantasy managers who either doubled, tripled or quadrupled-up on their coverage.
Sergio Ramos (£6.5m), owned by over 20% of managers, was incredibly close to finding the back of the net from a cross in the 14th minute. However, the intervention of Sergei Ignashevich (£4.5m) meant it went down as the Russian’s own-goal.
Spain dominated the possession but struggled to be direct enough to capitalise. That allowed Russia to get back into the match in the 41st minute when they were awarded a penalty. Gerard Pique (£6.0m) was the player penalised after the ball struck him on the arm following a corner. Dzyuba took the spot kick and scored it.
Both the second-half and the entirety of extra-time were dull and offered very little in the way of chances or entertainment.
Igor Akinfeev (£5.0m) was the hero in the shoot-out as he saved Koke (£6.0m) and Iago Aspas’ (£8.5m) penalties to win the tie.
Among the assets now redundant to a large portion of Fantasy managers are Diego Costa (owned by 26.7%), Isco (34.1%), Ramos (21.3%) and David De Gea (15.4%).
SPAIN XI (4-2-3-1): De Gea; Nacho (Carvajal 70’), Piqué, Ramos, Alba; Busquets, Koke; Asensio (Rodrigo 104’), Isco, Silva (Iniesta 67’); Diego Costa (Aspas 80’)
RUSSIA XI (4-1-4-1): Akinfeev; Fernandes, Kudryashov, Kutepov, Ignasevich, Zhirkov (Granat 45’); Samedov (Cheryshev 61’), Kuzyaev (Erokin 97’), Golovin, Zobnin; Dzyuba (Smolov 65’)
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.
