We’ve been having a look through each position in the official Euro 2024 Fantasy game, picking out the best players for Matchday 1 and beyond.
We have already focused on €4.5m+ goalkeepers and defenders but we thought that the €4.0m options in both positions deserved their own articles.
Here, we look at the goalkeepers.
Are there any secure starters and who are the best budget options? We look at the bottom price rung for bargains.
GOALKEEPERS
As Tyrion Lannister might have said if he was a Euro 2024 Fantasy manager: “If you wanted nailed, starting €4.0m goalkeepers, you’ve come to the wrong place”.
There are some we think may start; there are few who we can say definitely will.
Here’s the current situation.
JINDRICK STANEK
- Country: Czechia
- Favourable fixtures: MD2 (Georgia), MD3 (Turkey)
Jiri Pavlenka and Ales Mandous were the Czech goalkeepers in the first six Euro 2024 qualifiers but soon fell from favour. Neither will be in Germany this summer.
In their place, Czechia head coach Ivan Hasek has three relatively untested twentysomethings at the Euros. Two of them, Matej Kovar (€4.0m) and Vitezslav Jaros (€4.0m), had one cap between them going into the June friendlies.
The thinking is that Jindrick Stanek (€4.0m) will be lining up between the sticks in Matchday 1. He was part of what looked like a first-team XI in the warm-up game against North Macedonia on Monday, with Kovav and Jaros getting 45 minutes apiece against Malta three days before that.
Stanek had also finished the Euro qualifying campaign as first choice, albeit under a different boss.
The Czechs have decent Matchday 2 and 3 fixtures once the clash with Portugal is out of the way.
Stanek’s nation also kept clean sheets in four of their eight qualifying fixtures, although they all came against Moldova and the Faroe Islands.
Stanek’s group stage fixtures are all on different days to those of Jordan Pickford (€5.0m) and Bart Verbruggen (€4.5m), should you be wanting to adopt the sensible ‘two bites of the cherry’ approach in UEFA 2024 Fantasy.
- READ MORE: How to make subs in Euro 2024 Fantasy
PATRICK PENTZ
- Country: Austria
- Favourable fixtures: MD2 (Poland)
With Alexander Schlager undergoing knee surgery in early May, a void has opened up between the posts for Austria.
One-cap wonder Niklas Hedl (€4.0m) is expected to be third choice, with the more experienced Heinz Lindner (€4.5m) only just returning to the squad now after battling cancer.
From what we’ve read, Patrick Pentz (€4.0m) is anticipated to take the reins in goal.
In a group that contains France and the Netherlands, there won’t be much expected in Matchdays 1 and 3 bar save points.
The hope will be that Poland still have a striker injury crisis come Matchday 2 to boost Austria’s clean sheet prospects.
Shutouts against Sweden, Azerbaijan and Estonia in qualifying is one thing but more encouraging will be just three goals conceded in five subsequent friendlies, all against countries who will be in Germany this summer.
The highlight was a clean sheet against the upcoming tournament’s hosts in November.
Pentz could be paired with Diogo Costa (€5.0m) of Portugal, with neither goalkeeper sharing a fixture date.
HORATIU MOLDOVAN/FLORIN NITA
- Country: Romania
- Favourable fixtures: MD1 (Ukraine), MD3 (Slovakia)
Had Horatiu Moldovan (€4.0m) stayed with Rapid Bucharest all season, there likely wouldn’t have been much discussion about the identity of Romania’s number one. After all, he started the final eight of his national side’s qualifying fixtures.
But Moldovan jumped ship to Atletico in January – and he hasn’t kicked a ball at club level since.
That lack of match sharpness may be something manager Edward Iordanescu is thinking about.
Veteran Florin Nita (€4.0m) could get a look-in, then. He’s had an excellent season in Turkey and, perhaps tellingly, it was he who was part of the much stronger line-up of the two very different sides that Iordanescu sent out in the June friendlies.
At least we may have an answer to who gets the nod by Matchday 3, when chip users can think about bringing in the unidentified budget starter for the favourable fixture against Slovakia.
If this were FPL, of course, you’d get them both knowing that you’re guaranteed one start. But, with Euro Fantasy offering managers the chance of ‘twisting’ your goalkeeper’s score in any given Matchday, it seems suboptimal to not be looking at shotstoppers from different countries.
ETRIT BERISHA/THOMAS STRAKOSHA
- Country: Albania
- Favourable fixtures: None
There’s an even more complicated situation with Albania. Thomas Strakosha (€4.0m) has been starved of domestic minutes for Brentford for two seasons, while Etrit Berisha (€4.0m) lost his place at Empoli midway through the season and then suffered a chest injury which ruled him out for months.
The two were in and out in qualifying, Berisha starting five games to Strakosha’s three, while they’ve shared minutes in the subsequent friendlies.
Given the tough group they’re in, the advice would probably be: don’t bother taking the risk and look elsewhere for a cheap goalkeeper.
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