Scout picks for FanTeam’s EURO 2020 Mini-Monster – and how to play for free

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Having spent all week refining your EURO 2020 Fantasy team drafts ahead of the round of 16, you’ll by now know your Wijnaldums from your Wijndals.

You can put all that newfound knowledge to use today and win a share of £11,250 – and it won’t cost you a penny if you’re new to FanTeam.

There’s a jackpot of £1,350 to play for in their weekly Mini-Monster event, with well over 2,000 prizes on offer. To put that in context, there are fewer than 4,000 teams currently entered.

Entries to this ‘Free Hit’-type Fantasy game usually cost a modest £1.80 but anyone opening a new account with FanTeam will get a free ticket upon registration.

All eight last-16 EURO 2020 fixtures are covered, with entries accepted right up until kick-off in today’s match between Wales v Denmark.

ENTER YOUR TEAM AHEAD OF THE SATURDAY DEADLINE AT 17:00 BST

SCOUT PICKS

We can’t look past Italy’s defence at the moment: the Azzurri registered clean sheets in all of their group stage games, with Roberto Mancini’s side now on a run of 11 successive shut-outs in all competitions.

Despite the slight deterrent of a stacking penalty (see below), such is the confidence in the Italian backline that we’ve gone with a triple-up of their rearguard.

The attack-minded Leonardo Spinazzola (£7.5m), who had three shots and created two chances in Italy’s opening two group games, could reward us at either end of the field.

There’s also a triple-up on the Netherlands, with Georginio Wijnaldum (£11.2m) and Memphis Depay (£11.8m) – the two highest-scoring midfielders in the FanTeam tournament-long game – joined by Denzel Dumfries (£9.8m), who has had twice as many big chances as any other Fantasy defender at EURO 2020 so far.

The uncertainty surrounding France’s full-back situation leaves us to the safe pick of Raphael Varane (£9.2m), with Karim Benzema‘s (£12.5m) promotion to Les Bleus’ first-choice penalty-taker another feather in his cap.

So far, no surprises: Italy, Netherlands and France are all odds-on to beat their respective opponents over the coming days and progress to the quarter-finals.

Less fancied are Portugal, which explains Cristiano Ronaldo‘s scandalously cheap asking price of £8.3m for this Mini-Monster.

The tournament’s leading goalscorer, Ronaldo bagged four of his attacking returns against France and Germany – so fixture difficulty seems to make little difference to the Juventus talisman and we’re certainly not put off by a creaking Belgian backline.

The only Fantasy defender to have had more shots and penalty box touches than Dumfries so far is Denmark wing-back Joakim Maehle (£8.2m), who becomes the fifth member of our defence ahead of the Danes’ clash with Wales.

Finally, Emil Forsberg (£9.2m) is another player who has spot-kick duties in his locker. But the RB Leipzig winger is not just reliant on penalties for goal threat and no midfielder has more goals than the Swede at this summer’s tournament so far, with his total of eight shots as many as the rest of his country’s midfield put together.

HOW TO PLAY: A BRIEF GUIDE

Slightly different from the usual squad-based games, FanTeam managers are given a budget of €105m to build a team of 11 players that includes at least one goalkeeper, three defenders, two midfielders and one forward.

A maximum of three players are allowed from one country and captains score double points, as usual.

Here are some other minor differences to the otherwise easy-to-play game:

• There is no bench or manual substitutes; instead, there is a ‘Safety Net’ feature. If a player in your Fantasy team isn’t in the starting XI for their side, they will automatically be substituted for the next priced player from the same position and country.
• A ‘Stacking Penalty’ is given if you have two or more defensive players from the same nation and they keep a clean sheet. One point is deducted for each additional asset that you select from the same side.

A full breakdown is seen in the graphic above (click to expand).

HOW DOES THE SCORING WORK?

FPL managers looking for a way to make their knowledge pay will have no trouble picking up FanTeam‘s EURO 2020 Monster, with its familiar scoring system.

Think of it as FPL without the bonus points, with a few other exceptions – detailed in the graphic above (click to expand).

ENTER YOUR TEAM AHEAD OF THE SATURDAY DEADLINE AT 17:00 BST

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