Belgium assets are in demand ahead of their last-16 tie with Japan in Rostov this evening.

Aside from hosts Russia, Japan are the lowest-ranked team left in the tournament and only qualified for the knockout stages by virtue of having a better disciplinary record than Senegal.

Roberto Martinez’s side, meanwhile, scored more goals (nine) and created more big chances (13) than any other nation in the group stage.

Only Luka Modric has been bought by more Fantasy managers since the group stage ended than four-goal Romelu Lukaku (£10.1m), who is now the most-owned forward in the McDonald’s FIFA game (the Manchester United striker has been selected by 36.6% of Fantasy bosses).

Eden Hazard (£10.1m), who has two goals, an assist and a penalty win to his name, features in just 14.3% of our squads. The Chelsea forward has had more goal attempts and shots inside the box than Lukaku in the tournament to date.

Thibaut Courtois (£6.0m), who has kept two clean sheets in his three starts in the World Cup so far, is by far the most popular route into the Belgian backline: the Chelsea goalkeeper is in over a quarter of McDonald’s FIFA squads.

Attacking wing-back Thomas Meunier (£6.0m), who delivered on his assist potential in the 5-2 win over Tunisia, features in just 10.6% of our Fantasy sides, meanwhile.

Kevin De Bruyne (£9.9m) is the only other Belgian player with a double-digit ownership.

Budget midfielder Takashi Inui (£4.6m) is the most popular Fantasy pick in this Japanese side, closely followed by £3.8m-rated defender Hiroki Sakai. Inui returns to the starting XI this evening after missing out last time, as does Shinji Kagawa (£6.4m), who scored a penalty in Japan’s 2-1 win over Colombia.

The winners of this tie will take on Brazil in the quarter-finals this Friday.

Belgium XI (3-4-3): Courtois; Alderweireld, Kompany, Vertonghen; Meunier, De Bruyne, Witsel, Carrasco; Mertens, E. Hazard, Lukaku

Japan XI (4-2-3-1): Kawashima; Sakai, Yoshida, Shoji, Nagatomo; Shibasaki, Hasebe; Inui, Kagawa, Haraguchi; Osako

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.