The last World Cup quarter-final takes place this evening in Sochi as hosts Russia face Croatia – with the winners to face England in a semi-final tie on Wednesday night.
Luka Modric‘s (£9.1m) meteoric ownership rise has continued apace: having been the most-bought player of the previous round, the Croatian attracted investment from a further 200,000 Fantasy managers ahead of the quarter-final deadline on Friday. Only Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe were more popular picks this time.
The Real Madrid midfielder, of course, blanked in the last-16 tie against Denmark after his 116th-minute penalty was saved by Kasper Schmeichel.
However, coach Zlatko Dalic has since confirmed that Modric will remain on spot-kick duties for his country after praising the talismanic playmaker’s strength of character in the subsequent penalty shoot-out.
Modric’s ownership of 46.9% dwarfs that of any other player’s on show this evening, with Dejan Lovren (£5.1m) the next-most owned asset in the Croatian squad. Just over a quarter of McDonald’s FIFA managers have drafted the Liverpool defender into their squads.
Goalkeeper Danijel Subasic (£5.5m), owned by 16% of Fantasy bosses, is another popular route into the Croatian backline that has kept two clean sheets in the 2018 World Cup.
Midfielder Ivan Rakitic (£8.5m) is the only other Croatia player with a double-digit ownership.
The midfield is also where the bulk of the investment in the Russian squad lies. Denis Cheryshev (£5.6m), Iury Gazinsky (£4.3m) and Aleksandr Golovin (£6.5m) all have ownership above 10%, though Golovin was the only one of this trio to start in the last-16 victory over Spain. Cheryshev returns to the Russia side this evening.
Igor Akinfeev (£5.0m), who racked up nine saves in that success over the 2010 World Cup winners, features in 5.3% of Fantasy squads.
There is surprisingly little investment (2.9%) in Artem Dzyuba (£8.1m), Russia’s bustling centre-forward who has three goals and an assist to his name in this tournament already.
Russia XI (4-2-3-1):Â Akinfeev; Fernandes, Ignashevich, Kutepov, Kudryashov; Zobnin, Kuzyaev; Samedov, Golovin, Cheryshev; Dzyuba
Croatia XI (4-2-3-1):Â Subasic; Vrsaljko, Vida, Lovren, Strinic; Rakitic, Modric; Rebic, Kramaric, Perisic; Mandzukic
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.
