England and Croatia meet in Moscow this evening in the second World Cup semi-final, with France having already progressed to the final last night.
It is 20 years since Croatia last featured in a World Cup semi-final, while the wait for England has been even longer: Italia ’90 was, as the country has been continually reminded, the Three Lions’ previous appearance in the last four.
Zlatko Dalic’s side comes into this tie off the back of two gruelling knockout round matches in which they were taken all the way to penalties by Denmark and hosts Russia.
England had a relatively comfortable quarter-final win over Sweden, meanwhile, though of course were indebted to Jordan Pickford’s shootout heroics in the round of 16 victory over Colombia.
With two goals and an assist to his name in the tournament already, Luka Modric (£9.1m) is the most-owned player on show this evening and indeed in the McDonald’s FIFA game overall. Over 50% of Fantasy squads now feature the Real Madrid playmaker.
Ivan Rakitic (£8.5m), who has actually had more attempts on goal than spot-kick taker and set-piece specialist Modric this summer, features in 19.7% of Fantasy sides.
Dejan Lovren (£5.0m) is the most popular Croatian defensive option in the McDonald’s FIFA game, with just under a quarter of Fantasy managers putting their faith in the Liverpool centre-back.
Defender Sime Vrsaljko (£5.5m) and goalkeeper Danijel Subasic (£5.5m) have been passed fit to play despite picking up injuries in the win over Russia.
Harry Kane (£11.2m) remains the most popular Fantasy asset in the England squad, but it’s the Three Lions’ “other Harry” who has seen the second-biggest ownership surge since the quarter-finals. Harry Maguire (£5.0m) was bought by around 340,000 new Fantasy managers ahead of Friday evening’s deadline – only Kevin De Bruyne proved a more popular buy – and the Leicester City defender’s ownership has shot up from 5.8% to 24.6% as a result.
Maguire, who scored and kept a clean sheet in the 2-0 win over Sweden, has had more penalty box touches than any other defender at this summer’s World Cup.
John Stones (£5.9m) and Jordan Pickford (£5.5m) are still the most popular routes into the England backline, however.
Jesse Lingard (£7.5m), who has had more attempts on goal than Kane in Russia, sits in 37.8% of McDonald’s FIFA squads.
England XI (3-5-2): Pickford; Stones, Maguire, Walker; Trippier, Henderson, Alli, Lingard, Young; Sterling, Kane
Croatia XI (4-2-3-1): Subasic; Vrsaljko, Lovren, Vida, Strinic; Rakitic, Modric; Brozovic, Perisic, Rebic; 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.
5 years, 9 months agowhat a dangerous sub for Croatia, what if it backfires?