Euro 2024 Fantasy: Ronaldo + Fernandes blank, Guler stars

Group E got underway on Tuesday with the final set of Matchday 1 fixtures.

Euro debutants Georgia played their first match at a major tournament, taking on Turkey in Dortmund, before Portugal faced off against Czechia in the late kick-off.

We’ll address some of the main Fantasy talking points from those matches in this article.

For all the goals, assists and stats, check out our Scoreboard piece from after full-time.

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PORTUGAL 2-1 CZECHIA

RONALDO + FERNANDES BLANK

Portugal came from behind to beat Czechia 2-1 on Tuesday, but there were blanks for most of their highly-owned assets, including Cristiano Ronaldo (€10.0m) and Bruno Fernandes (€9.0m).

Ronaldo had just 32 touches overall, the fewest of any outfielder in Portugal’s starting XI except Rafael Leao (€8.5m), but he still offered a threat and had the best chances to score, racking up five shots.

He would have had a goal too, if not for a brilliant save by Jindrich Stanek (€4.0m), although it could have been offside anyway.

Fernandes supplied the pass and tried to make things happen, but generally stayed a bit deeper, with just two penalty box touches.

Instead, Portugal got the win thanks to a Robin Hranac (€4.0m) own goal and substitute Francisco Conceicao’s (€6.5m) late strike.

As for the formation, Roberto Martinez is a very versatile tactical manager and set his team up in a 3-4-3 shape, with Joao Cancelo (€6.0m) inverting and Vitinha (€6.0m) and Fernandes paired together in central midfield.

Portugal had 74% possession and 19 shots, but it never felt like a one-sided game, with the approach far too reliant on crosses into the box.

Above: Portugal’s average position map v Czechia

“We won the game. We need to value what we did well as well; we defended very, very well. When you limit Czechia to no corners and just one shot on target, I think we can build a lot on the good things that we did today.” – Roberto Martinez

Czechia took a surprise lead in the second half with yet another goal from outside the box, the 11th of the tournament so far, courtesy of Lukas Provod (€6.0m).

They ran out of steam in the end but defended well and frustrated their opponent for long periods. Overall, they looked pretty solid, and with Georgia up next, budget ‘keeper Stanek should pick up a bit of interest.

West Ham duo Vladimir Coufal (€5.0m) and Tomas Soucek (€6.0m) also started for Czechia, as did Patrick Schick (€7.0m). However, the forward was taken off just after the hour mark, having already been booked.

“We were pushed to a deep defensive block and were not able to keep the ball. Of course, we did not want that, but the quality of Portugal forced us into it. Because we had to work hard defensively, we did not have enough power to keep the ball and often lost it very easily.” – Ivan Hasek

Portugal XI (3-4-3): Costa; Dias, Pepe, Mendes (Neto 90); Dalot (Inacio 63), Vitinha (Conceicao 90), Fernandes, Cancelo (Semedo 90); Bernardo, Leao (Jota 63), Ronaldo

Czechia XI (3-1-4-2): Stanek; Krejci, Holes (Chory 90+3), Hranac; Soucek; Coufal, Provod (Barak 79), Sulc (Sevcik 79), Doudera; Schick (Chytil 61), Kuchta (Lingr 60)

TURKEY 3-1 GEORGIA

GULER THE DIFFERENCE

Real Madrid wonderkid Arda Guler (€6.0m) scored a super goal as Turkey started their Euro 2024 campaign with a 3-1 win over Georgia.

After receiving the ball with his back to goal, the 19-year-old produced a moment of magic, curling a wonderful strike into the top corner.

It may have been Guler’s only shot, but he racked up three key passes and looked a real threat drifting in from the right flank, in a display that earned him the Player of the Match award.

In an end-to-end thriller, both sides racked up five ‘big chances’, but Turkey’s individual quality shone through.

Right-back Mert Mulder (€4.5m) gave Vincenzo Montella’s side the lead with another goal of the tournament contender, moments before Kenan Yildiz (€5.5m) had his strike ruled out by the VAR.

However, substitute Kerem Akturkoglu (€7.0m) wrapped up the three points deep into injury time, after Georgia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili (€4.5m) had gone up for a succession of corners.

Also, a quick word on Kaan Ayhan (€4.5m).

Deployed out-of-position in a central midfield role, he hit the woodwork and, like Mulder, attempted three shots. He also racked up 59 touches in the opponent’s half – only Giovanni Di Lorenzo (€5.5m) and Maximilian Mittelstadt (€4.0m) registered more among defenders in Matchday 1.

As for Georgia, the tournament debutants fought valiantly and in a frantic finale, struck the post and had an effort blocked in the fifth minute of added time.

So often the star of the show, Khvica Kvaratskhelia (€7.0m) was overshadowed by Georges Mikautadze (€5.0m), one of the cheapest starting forwards in the official game. He slotted in at the near post to equalise and ended the match with four shots and three key passes.

On Tuesday’s evidence, Georgia will struggle defensively, but they do have lots of cheap starters and face Czechia next.

Turkey, meanwhile, will look to make it two wins on the bounce when they take on Portugal on Saturday.

Turkey XI (4-2-3-1): Gunok; Mulder (Celik 85), Akaydin, Bardakci, Kadioglu; Calhanoglu (Ozcan 90+2), Ayhan (Demiral 79); Guler (Yazici 79), Kokcu, Yildiz (Akturkoglu 85); Yilmaz

Georgia XI (3-5-2): Mamardashvili; Kvirkvelia (Zivzivadze 85), Kashia, Dvali; Kakabadze, Chakvetadze (Davitashvili 73), Mekvabishvili (Altunashvili 89), Kochorashvili; Tsitasishvili (Lochoshvili 74); Mikautadze, Kvaratskhelia

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