Euro 2024 Fantasy: Mittelstadt + Gundogan haul, Sutalo + Akanji’s recoveries

Matchday 2 of Euro 2024 Fantasy got underway on Wednesday, with hosts Germany becoming the first team to qualify.

Switzerland are on the brink of following suit, while Albania, Croatia and Scotland got on the board with draws.

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

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

GERMANY 2-0 HUNGARY

GERMANY QUALIFY – WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR MATCHDAY 3?

The hosts are through, then, with a game to spare. So, might we see a few of their star players rested in Matchday 3?

Fatigue might not be that much of an issue, with six days of rest before the knockout rounds begin.

What may be more of a consideration is the yellow card count. Four of their starting XI have been booked already at the European Championship: Antonio Rudiger (€5.5m), Jonathan Tah (€4.5m), Maximillian Mittelstadt (€4.0m) and Robert Andrich (€5.0m). Another caution and they’ll pick up a one-match ban.

Rather than risk them collecting another booking and missing the round of 16, Julian Nagelsmann could opt to spare one of two of those aforementioned names.

Nagelsmann is intent on finishing first, however. Final-day opponents Switzerland would overtake the hosts with a win, so the German head coach would certainly want to avoid that. It could be the difference between facing Italy/Spain and playing Denmark.

“We want to be first in our group stage; that’s important because we want to win every game, so if we win every game this year, we will be first in the group stage.

“Then we will see we cannot influence the results in the other group, so we will see what happened there, and then we will see who our next opponent is in the knockout stage.” – Julian Nagelsmann

We Fantasy managers don’t need to worry too much. We’ll get to see the teamsheets from the final Group A games before we finalise our Matchday 3 teams, allowing us to react to any benchings.

GUNDOGAN, MUSIALA + MITTELSTADT HAUL BUT WIRTZ FLOPS

Germany weren’t quite as explosive as they had been in Matchday 1, while Hungary served up a better performance than they had against Switzerland. Ultimately, though, class told.

Jamal Musiala (€8.5m) became the first player to score two goals in this tournament, adding to his opening-day goal with the deadlock-breaking strike here.

Ilkay Gundogan (€7.0m) set up that goal and opened his account. He’s arguably looked the most threatening of Germany’s midfielders so far, consistently taking up central positions in the box.

The Barcelona man has had four non-penalty shots in the box at Euro ’24 so far. Kai Havertz (€7.5m) and Florian Wirtz (€7.5m) have had one each.

On top of the goal threat, Gundogan has so far had longevity. He’s already had around an hour of extra game time compared to Havertz and Wirtz, who have been the first German attackers taken off in both matches so far.

Those two remain appealing assets but you’re now clock-watching when the second half begins, fearing an early withdrawal.

MARVELOUS MITTELSTADT

The Berlin Lundstram produced a double-digit haul for his owners. Not just keeping a clean sheet, Mittelstadt assisted Gundogan’s strike and claimed two recovery ball points. The booking was the only black mark against his name.

To summarise his attacking threat: he’s had more shots in the box, registered more penalty box touches and created more chances than Wirtz this summer.

Tah and Rudiger also got two ball recovery points apiece, while Joshua Kimmich (€6.5m) created four chances from right-back for the second game running. He’s listed as a midfielder, of course, denting his appeal somewhat.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR HUNGARY

While Germany were unlucky to lose their clean sheet in Matchday 1, they were fortunate not to concede to Hungary.

Their visitors actually carved out more Opta-defined big chances, by four to three.

The front three all had sights of goal. Dominik Szoboszlai (€7.0m), at the heart of much of Hungary’s play, saw a free-kick well saved and a goalbound shot blocked by Tah. Barnabas Varga (€6.0m) spurned two close-range chances. Roland Sallai (€5.5m) was denied by Manuel Neuer (€6.0m) with seconds on the clock and had a strike ruled out for offside.

Big Willi Orban (€4.5m), a centre-half, looks a threat from set plays, too.

There’ll be a few takers in their players in Matchday 3, with Scotland providing the opposition and a win a necessity to stand any chance of qualification.

SCOTLAND 1-1 SWITZERLAND

MCSAUCE OF HOPE

Speaking of the Tartan Army, they were much improved after stinking the place out in Matchday 1.

They matched Switzerland for shots in the box (nine) and big chances (two). In general, there was just a lot more fight.

Set plays were a big source of their threat. Half of their shots came from free-kicks and corners, ably delivered by Scott McTominay (€6.5m) and Andrew Robertson (€5.5m).

Budget defender Grant Hanley (€4.0m), in for the banned Ryan Porteous (€4.5m), hit the post with the best of those efforts.

Hanley looks set to start in Matchday 3 again. Not only will Porteous still be suspended but Kieran Tierney (€5.0m) will now be out after sustaining an injury on Wednesday.

 “He’s definitely out. It looks pretty bad. Obviously we have to assess it, but Kieran won’t make the next game.” – Steve Clarke on Kieran Tierney

There aren’t too many obvious Fantasy targets for Scotland but McTominay is one of them. No midfielder scored as many goals in qualification as he did (seven), so there was no surprise when he popped up with a (fortunate) strike against the Swiss.

AKANJI’S RECOVERIES

No clean sheet again for the Swiss, then, but Manuel Akanji (€5.0m) is making light of that. Despite the lack of shutouts, goals and assists, he’s sitting on 12 points in Euro Fantasy.

Ball recoveries have been key. He’s made 17 of those across the first two matches, giving him an extra five points. The Player of the Match award on Wednesday was the icing on the cake.

Ricardo Rodriguez (€4.5m), is quietly going about his business, too, if not quite at Akanji levels:

Switzerland are as good as through now. Even if there was a big goal swing between them and Scotland on the final day, one of the four best ‘third place’ slots should be secure with four points in the bag.

Few Fantasy managers will be interested in Switzerland players in Matchday 3. As well as Germany proving tricky opposition, you never quite know what Murat Yakin is going to pull out of the bag in terms of team selection.

After surprise starts for Kwadwo Duah (€5.5m) and Michel Aebischer (€5.0m) in Matchday 1, Duah was benched for Xherdan Shaqiri (€6.5m) against Scotland. Yakin must know what he’s doing: all three have scored.

Shaqiri’s goal was superbly taken, pouncing on a Scotland error to curl in a first-time effort. His fitness levels limited him to an hour, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him now preserved for the round of 16.

We will at least get to see Yakin’s teamsheet in Matchday 3 before the deadline.

A left wing-back in the June friendlies and a right winger in Matchday 1, Dan Ndoye (€5.5m) led the line against the Scots. He was the main threat, with four shots. There’s no out-of-position tag here, unfortunately, as he’s listed as a forward.

ALBANIA 2-2 CROATIA

BOTH TEAMS ON THE BRINK

Sitting on one point apiece after two games, Croatia and Albania are on the brink of a group-stage exit. To avoid that fate, they’ll very likely have to beat Italy and Spain respectively in Matchday 3.

Not many of us Fantasy managers will back them to do so.

The two served up an excellent spectacle in the early kick-off, with Croatia again racking up the shots and Albania a threat on the break.

Poor finishing has partly cost Croatia so far, not to mention slow starts in both games. The veteran midfielders are looking their age, too.

“The first half was again bad, we played badly. We conceded and then we couldn’t do anything. We were very slow. We made a lot of errors, we lost many balls. In the second half, we played a lot better, we were a lot more decisive.” – Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic

Another five big chances were carved out by Dalic’s side, taking them to eight for the tournament. Only one, Andrej Kramaric‘s (€7.5m) leveller, has been converted. Croatia even had to rely on a comical own goal to take the lead in this game.

Above: Teams sorted by big chances at Euro ’24 so far

As for Albania, they’ll be much more content with a point than Croatia. Many pundits would have expected them to bow out of the tournament quickly, but they’ve run two of the bigger teams close and ruined their clean sheets in doing so.

MORE RECOVERIES FOR SUTALO

Like Akanji, Josip Sutalo (€5.0m) is without a clean sheet so far. But also like the Swiss defender, he’s working hard to make up for it.

Sutalo can even better Akanji’s tally of 17 ball recoveries at Euro 2024 by two. A massive 13 of them came against Albania.

Josko Gvardiol (€5.5m) is doing OK on that front too, if not as well as Sutalo:

Gvardiol was back at centre-half here, so devoid of much attacking threat. Sutalo, indeed, had the best of Croatia’s chances with a close-range miss.

There’s a chance that Gvardiol could return to left-back against Italy, though, with Dalic throwing in another centre-back. The wallet-friendly Marin Pongracic (€4.0m) could yet return to the starting XI, then, having been benched here.

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