Euro 2024

Zophar’s Euro 2024 Fantasy team reveal, captains + chip strategy

In the latest of our articles from our team of contributors, Zophar – who has eight top 10k FPL finishes to his name – discusses his Euro 2024 Fantasy team.

He also talks chip strategy and captaincy ahead of Friday’s Matchday 1 deadline.




The start of the European Championship is only a few days away now and after a nice break after the conclusion of the Premier League, I am really looking forward to having live, competitive football on my TV screen again.

The timing of the matches is quite convenient for those of us living in India, with all three games kicking off after work hours. I’m looking forward to playing tournament Fantasy Football for the first time since 2010. 

Chip Strategy Initial thoughts

The popular strategy going around is to play a chip in Matchdays 2 and 3. Many of the popular teams have a tough game in Matchday 2, while Matchday 3 might bring rotation with certain nations already qualified.

We get unlimited transfers the week after, so there is an opportunity here to essentially select four different teams for every matchday – which seems quite fun. I think the big gains will be in the early rounds with mismatches, rather than in the knockout stage, so this strategy makes sense.

My FPL Wire podcast cohost Pras has suggested an alternative strategy. Here, you don’t play a chip in Matchday 2 and save one for the quarter-finals in case there are any upsets in the last 16. That way, you can use the unlimited transfers in the round of 16 like a Free Hit, similar to how you would in the earlier strategy in Matchday 2.

I think this is quite viable, as well, so I am trying to be flexible and go back to the old FPL mantra of picking ‘good players from good teams’ who I would be comfortable fielding in Matchday 2. I think I would still be picking the likes of Kylian Mbappe (€11.0m), Harry Kane (€11.0m), Romelu Lukaku (€9.0m) etc anyway so I do see merit in Pras’s point. 

There will be more discussion on this on the FPL Wire with my co-hosts Lateriser and Pras so I am open to being convinced on both. 

Team selection

Best €4.5m-€6.0m defenders for Euro 2024 Fantasy 7

Defenders

I’m quite conflicted with how to set up my defence. There are so many cheap, good options available like Marc Guehi (€4.5m), Jonathan Tah (€4.5m), Maximilian Middlestadt (€4.0m) and Wout Faes (€4.0m) that you could conceivably make with a great defence with a max spend of €5.0m, alongside Federico Dimarco (€5.0m). But then the likes of Joao Cancelo (€6.0m), Theo Hernandez (€5.5m), Joakim Maehle (€5.5m) and Denzel Dumfries (€5.5m) are capable of huge hauls with their attacking potential, and they arguably offer much more than the €5.5m-€6.0m midfielders. I’ve tried to achieve a balance with Cancelo, Hernandez, Dimarco, Mittelstadt and Faes but downgrading one or two of them could allow me to spend more in midfield. 

Midfielders

Thanks for reading!

We will be discussing Groups D, E and F, chip strategy, captaincy and thoughts so far on the friendlies on the June 13 edition of The FPL Wire.

We have already covered Groups A, B and C in an earlier episode, which you can check out here.


148 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Holmes
    • 11 Years
    5 months, 2 days ago

    Costa, Moldovan
    Cancelo, Van Dijk, Hernandez, Castagne, Mittelstan
    Kevin, Bruno, Gundogan, Zinchenko, Guler
    Mbappe, Lukaku, Chiesa

    Draft is ready, just need to decide whether to move forward or not...

    1. Holmes
      • 11 Years
      5 months, 2 days ago

      Top of the page, yay! Its a sign.... of going underground again

    2. The Mentaculus
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 3 Years
      5 months, 2 days ago

      Hot on Belgium, eh? Is this just for MD1 or are you saving a chip for after the group stage?

      1. Holmes
        • 11 Years
        5 months, 2 days ago

        Expecting Belgium to do well, atleast in group stage.

        Will use Limitless in MD2 or 3, WC after RD16. Doubt 2 FTs would be enough.

        1. Joey Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 4 Years
          5 months, 2 days ago

          You get more than 2 FTs per round of knock-out stages (3/4/5) if that's what you meant.

        2. The Mentaculus
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • Has Moderation Rights
          • 3 Years
          5 months, 2 days ago

          3 FTs before QF - but yeah, I guess there's potential for needing a hit / leaving multilple eliminated players on the bench there, and the 3rd place teams could still provide enough fodder to treat R16 as a FH.

          I like the idea of going ultra differential in MD2 and avoiding Spain/Italy/England/Denmark/France/Netherlands so will probably do WC2 LL3, but I think LL2 / WCQF looks a nice option also

  2. CONNERS
    • 5 Years
    5 months, 2 days ago

    Which pairing do you prefer?

    A/ Cancelo & Gundo
    B/ Szoboszlai & Hernandez

    1. Holmes
      • 11 Years
      5 months, 2 days ago

      Guess A has more attacking threat

    2. CONNERS
      • 5 Years
      5 months, 2 days ago

      Thanks - yeah possibly. It's a difficult one though.

      I think Szob plays quite advanced for Hungary.

    3. sirmorbach
      • 8 Years
      5 months, 2 days ago

      B for me

  3. sirmorbach
    • 8 Years
    5 months, 2 days ago

    How's she looking?

    Costa / Verbruggen
    Theo / Dimarco / Guéhi / Faes / Mittelstadt
    Bruno / Gündo / Szoboszlai / Rodri / Güler
    Kane / Mbappé / CR7

    1. azz007
      • 6 Years
      5 months, 2 days ago

      No Belgium attackers. Bizzare have the eaiset of fixtures

      1. sirmorbach
        • 8 Years
        5 months, 2 days ago

        Not convinced by Lukaku over those forwards, no money for Trossard unless I ditch Bruno

        1. azz007
          • 6 Years
          5 months, 2 days ago

          It's too top heavy.
          Kdb? . Nor convinced with kane. Saka is a good England option.

  4. azz007
    • 6 Years
    5 months, 2 days ago

    Best 7. 5 forward for md1 only.

    1. F4L
      • 9 Years
      5 months, 2 days ago

      havertz

    2. Mirror Man
        5 months, 2 days ago

        Hojlund

        1. azz007
          • 6 Years
          5 months, 2 days ago

          Dovbyk a good punt?

    3. sirmorbach
      • 8 Years
      5 months, 2 days ago

      A. CR7, Güler, Guéhi
      B. Schick, Trossard, Maehle

      1. The Mentaculus
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • Has Moderation Rights
        • 3 Years
        5 months, 2 days ago

        GTG as above I think. Give Schick a whirl MD2.

        As discussed on the previous page, I gave up on Güler but I thought the other posters did a pretty convincing job defending him as a punt.

        If you really want to do Guehi - Mæhle I'd rather downgrade Costa - 4m (Strakosha maybe, treated as a hail mary punt before Verbruggen)

        1. sirmorbach
          • 8 Years
          5 months, 2 days ago

          Many many thanks indeed

    4. Total Slotball
      • 8 Years
      5 months, 2 days ago

      Thoughts?

      Lunin Costa
      TAA Tah Mittelstadt Dimarco Faes
      KDB Kroos Sudakov Fernandes Chakvetadze
      Kane Mbappe Lukaku

      .5 ITB

    5. AV92
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      5 months, 10 hours ago

      Pickford. Lunin.
      Faes. Dimarco. Frimpong. Mitteselstadt. Cancelled.
      Bruno. Szoboslai. Musiala. Gundogan. Jorginho.
      Kane. Mbappe. Delay.

      Any thoughts welcome. Thanks.