FIFA World Cup Fantasy: Spain and Croatia players set to be popular buys

We round up the key Fantasy talking points from Thursday’s four fixtures in our Scout Notes summary.

As we’ve reached the decisive Matchday 3 round of games, the focus will again mostly be on the players we’ll be able to pick from in the knockout stage and not those on the next flight back home.

The graphics and numbers in this article are from our Premium Members Area, which now includes all Opta player and team data from every World Cup game.

GROUP E

JAPAN 2-1 SPAIN

• Goals: Ritsu Doan, Ao Tanaka | Alvaro Morata
• Assists: Junya Ito, Kaoru Mitoma | Cesar Azpilicueta

COSTA RICA 2-4 GERMANY

• Goals: Yeltsin Tejeda, Juan Pablo Vargas | Serge Gnabry, Kai Havertz x2, Niclas Fullkrug
• Assists: Kendal Waston | David Raum, Niclas Fullkrug, Serge Gnabry, Leroy Sane

All four teams in Group E were in the two qualifying positions at some point on Thursday evening, with both Spain and Germany at one stage set to exit the tournament.

In the end, it was only Die Mannschaft of the two group favourites who bowed out, with Luis Enrique’s La Roja joining Japan in the round of 16. No more assists from the budget David Raum ($4.5m), no more eye-catching blanks from the fleet-footed Jamal Musiala ($8.0m).

Some of Germany’s other attacking assets at least signed off with some hauls, as differentials Kai Havertz ($8.5m), Serge Gnabry ($9.0m) and Niclas Fullkrug ($7.5m) hoovered up a combined 29 points against the plucky-but-porous Costa Rica.

It’s Japan and Spain who we turn our attentions to now, with Croatia and Morocco up next for the pair respectively; cynics argue that Enrique’s troops will be quite content with finishing second given their new Brazil-less path to the final.

Spain’s complacent performance mirrored that of an already qualified France yesterday, and Enrique – like Didier Deschamps – could at least point to a half-changed side for mitigation for this loss.

The benched Jordi Alba ($6.0m) and Aymeric Laporte ($5.5m) will surely return against Morocco, for starters.

Further forward, however, it’s less clear, after Alvaro Morata ($8.0m) scored on his first start in Qatar but was then hooked before the hour mark. Matchday 1 and 2 starters, Ferran Torres ($7.0m) and Marco Asensio ($8.5m), were then introduced as Spain chased the game.

SPAIN OPTIONS FOR THE LAST 16

There’s a similar lack of security with Japan’s attackers: only the highly rated Daichi Kamada (£5.5m) of their cluster of midfielders and forward has started all three matches but he’s yet to deliver a return, registering just three shots in the box and one chance created in Qatar to date.

Ritsu Doan ($6.0m) scored his second goal of the tournament to level it up against Spain but, like Morata, he has started only one group game to date.

GROUP F

CROATIA 0-0 BELGIUM
CANADA 1-2 MOROCCO

• Goals: Nayef Aguerd (own-goal) | Youssef En-Nesyri, Hakim Ziyech
• Assists: Samuel Adekugbe | Achraf Hakimi

The results are getting increasingly tough to predict in this World Cup, with everyone (bar a few whipping boys) seemingly capable of beating everyone else and few teams stringing together impressive displays.

Of the 24 nations to have completed their group-stage campaigns, 21 have won at least one match – including nine who are now on the way home. No side has triumphed in all three games, meanwhile.

France and Spain can point to squad rotation for their Matchday 3 misery but two more sides through to the last 16, Croatia and Morocco, weren’t totally convincing on Thursday afternoon with full-strength sides.

The Croats were close to being dumped out several times in the closing stages of their goalless draw with Belgium, with fit-again substitute Romelu Lukaku ($9.5m) conspiring to miss five close-range efforts – four of them deemed ‘big chances’ by Opta – in a remarkable cameo.

All was looking rosy for Morocco, meanwhile, after they raced into a 2-0 lead against already eliminated Canada, Matchday 3 punts Hakim Ziyech ($7.0m) and Achraf Hakimi ($5.0m) immediately rewarding their new owners with attacking returns.

But Canada came back into the match via an own-goal and were millimetres from grabbing a point with a late Atiba Hutchinson ($5.5m) effort that bounced down and out via the underside of the bar.

Perhaps we are being harsh on both teams; with a point being enough to ensure progression, there was an inevitability that nerves would creep in and that they would subconsciously sit back on their respective results.

As for the last 16, it’s probably fair to say that Croatia assets will get more of a look-in than those of Morocco. It’s not just a more favourable-on-paper fixture (v Japan) but also their tournament nous as 2018 World Cup finalists and vastly experienced heads.

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