A mouth-watering quarter-final, unquestionably the tie of the round, takes place this evening as Brazil and Belgium meet in Kazan.

The Selecao could so easily have been playing Japan tonight, after Belgium’s near-miss in the round of 16.

Philippe Coutinho (£9.2m) remains the most popular buy in the McDonald’s FIFA World Cup game, despite blanking in the 2-0 win over Mexico. Well over half (59%) of Fantasy bosses own the Barcelona playmaker, who has had more shots on goal than any midfielder at this year’s tournament.

Marcelo (£6.5m), previously the most-owned Fantasy asset in the World Cup group stage but now selected by 30% of McDonald’s FIFA bosses, returns to the Brazil side this evening after sitting out the last-16 victory over Mexico with a back spasm.

Centre-back Thiago Silva (£6.1m), who has three clean sheets and a goal to his name already, finds himself in 26.9% of Fantasy squads.

Neymar (£12.0m) has recovered from his touchline assault in the Mexico match to take his place in Brazil’s starting XI tonight. The Paris Saint-Germain forward has picked up some of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’s former owners and now sits in just over a quarter of Fantasy squads. No player has had more shots than the Brazil striker at this year’s World Cup.

Romelu Lukaku (£10.1m) has been usurped by Harry Kane as the most popular forward in the McDonald’s FIFA game but is still owned by over a third of all Fantasy managers (33.5%). Eden Hazard is priced identically to Lukaku yet has less than half of the Manchester United striker’s owners, despite scoring more points (22 to 21) than his fellow Belgian forward.

Thomas Meunier (£6.0m) is living up to his pre-tournament billing as a must-have defender, having supplied two assists in his three World Cup appearances to date. The cavalier wing-back, who is owned by 10.3% of Fantasy managers, is one yellow card away from suspension, however.

Chelsea custodian Thibault Courtois (£6.0m) is in just under a quarter of Fantasy squads, having kept two clean sheets and registered save points in his other two appearances so far.

Both goalkeepers can expect a busy time this evening: Brazil (77) and Belgium (76) have attempted more shots than any other country at the 2018 World Cup to date.

Brazil (4-3-3): Alisson; Fagner, Silva, Miranda, Marcelo; Paulinho, Fernandinho, Coutinho; Willian, Jesus, Neymar

Belgium (3-4-2-1): Courtois; Alderweireld, Kompany, Vertonghen; Meunier, Fellaini, Witsel, Chadli; De Bruyne, Hazard; Lukaku

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.