Sunday brought three more Matchday 1 clashes of Euro 2024, so here are the notes from Serbia v England, Poland v Netherlands and Slovenia v Denmark.
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SERBIA 0-1 ENGLAND
BELLINGHAM V KANE CAPTAINCY
There’s a buzz around this England team and the first half hour showed why. Such a positive start was typified by Jude Bellingham (€9.5m), who became the youngest European player to appear in three major international tournaments. He’s only 20.
He marked the occasion by heading home a deflected cross from Bukayo Saka (€8.5m) – also excellent in the first half – that looped upwards. Well done to managers that moved their Fantasy captaincy on Bellingham, as he locked in 12 points.
Whereas it was a bad result for all those passing the armband onto Harry Kane (€11.0m). It took 18 minutes for his first touch to occur, having battled with Nikola Milenkovic (€4.5m) all night.
And still, he found time for one big chance. Jarrod Bowen’s (€7.0m) cross found Kane inside the six-yard box, where a powerful header was pushed onto the bar by goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic (€4.0m).
The good news for captainers is that Euro Fantasy’s rules mean it can quickly be moved onto someone like Kylian Mbappe (€11.0m), Romelu Lukaku (€9.0m) or Cristiano Ronaldo (€10.0m) without any harm done.
HELD ON FOR CLEAN SHEET
Meanwhile, England have one of the highest-owned defences. Although things got much nervier in the second half, as Serbia gained confidence, the Three Lions held on to grab only the second clean sheet from the seven overall matches so far.
An error let Aleksandar Mitrovic (€7.0m) have a chance. Later on, his strike partner Dusan Vlahovic (€7.5m) forced Jordan Pickford (€5.0m) to tip over the bar.
Nevertheless, managers with Pickford, Kyle Walker (€5.5m), Marc Guehi (€4.5m) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (€5.5m) can celebrate. In fact, the big team news revealed that the Liverpool star was being used in central midfield, offering out-of-position potential. He produced a match-high of three shots from 68 minutes, before making way for Conor Gallagher (€6.5m). Next to him was Declan Rice’s (€6.5m) 10 ball recoveries.
SLOVENIA 1-1 DENMARK
EMOTIONAL ERIKSEN GOAL
The last time Christian Eriksen (€7.0m) played at the European Championships – 1,100 days previously – he suffered a cardiac arrest in traumatic scenes. Not only is the midfielder still alive but he was able to score an emotional goal to put Denmark 1-0 up. What a comeback.
A throw-in was cleverly flicked on by Jonas Wind (€7.0m) into the path of onrushing Eriksen, who chested the ball into a half-volley.
And he was deservedly handed ‘Player of the Match’, having been the first player to record 12 shot involvements in a Euros match (five for himself, plus seven chances created) since Mesut Ozil in 2023. Hope your day been today I
These two faced each other in qualifying, where attacking full-back Joakim Maehle (€5.5m) got on the scoresheet. No defender chalked up more big chances (four) en route to Germany. However, he wasn’t in Kasper Hjulmand’s starting line-up this time.
Then, in the final stages, unrelated midfielder Morten Hjulmand (€5.5m) accidentally diverted Erik Janza’s (€4.5m) long-ranger past his goalkeeper, ensuring this finished 1-1. Slovenia’s first strike since Euro 2000 was almost doubled but Benjamin Sesko (€7.0m) powered a late effort off the post.
As for Danish forward Rasmus Hojlund (€7.5m), an imminent tap-in was saved well by Jan Oblak (€5.0m).
POLAND 1-2 NETHERLANDS
DUMFRIES OVER FRIMPONG
In the day’s opening match, wing-back Denzel Dumfries (€5.5m) got the nod over Jeremie Frimpong (€5.5m) – the latter being this game’s most-owned defender after Netherlands team-mate Virgil van Dijk (€6.0m).
So there was a lot of Fantasy frustration when Adam Buksa (€5.5m) headed home from a 16th-minute corner to put Poland ahead. Dutch zonal marking exposed and a clean sheet gone.
Van Dijk netted in both June friendlies and a corner here quickly led to an attempt that was saved by Wojciech Szczesny (€5.0m). Additionally, Dumfries’ second-half shot inside the box went across goal but missed the target.
Instead, Nathan Ake (€5.5m) was the Dutch defender to deliver attacking returns. Manchester City’s left-back assisted both goals and finished on nine points.
WOUT WITH A BANG
Despite the match being fairly even in terms of expected goals (xG), the Netherlands had more chances but were simply wasteful. Xavi Simons (€7.0m) bagged his first Oranje goal last week but couldn’t replicate it on this occasion – fed by Cody Gakpo (€7.5m), the 21-year-old hit across the ball and put it wide at the near posts. Hope your shift went to see if it
Liverpool’s Gakpo equalised in the 29th minute with a shot from outside the box and, combined with his ‘Player of the Match’ award, secured an impressive 10 points for managers. Five attempts, two on target and a trio of big chances created.
Yet the winner eventually came from the first touch of substitute Wout Weghorst (€6.5m). He’s likely to continue the ‘super sub’ role that brought a World Cup brace against Argentina and cameos in all 2024 internationals, which have yielded four goals so far. That dents his Euro Fantasy potential.
but you could look at Swiss players v Scotland, Croatians v Albania, Baumgartner/Sabitzer, Schick, Mitrovic
9 months, 20 days ago
Keep wirtz as captain or switch to mbappe or even lukaku?