It’s time to nail down some Scout Picks ahead of Matchday 5 of FIFA Club World Cup Fantasy.

Only eight teams remain, so Fantasy managers can have up to five players from one club now.

• READ MORE: FIFA Club World Cup 2025 Fantasy Matchday 5 guide

CLUB WORLD CUP MATCHDAY 5 SCOUT PICKS

The bookies make Fluminense v Al Hilal the hardest-to-call fixture, so we’ve hedged our bets with two names from each side.

The good thing is that this match is up first in the quarter-finals, so we can quickly dispose of any blankers and bring in substitutes from the other last-eight ties.

We’ve mostly pinned our colours to the mast with the other three matches. There’s a fivesome from Real Madrid ahead of their meeting with a so-so Borussia Dortmund outfit, while we’ve also tripled up on Chelsea.

While favouring Paris Saint-Germain for their quarter-final, we have nominated Harry Kane ($11.0m). This, as we’ll explain, is more to do with a paucity of reliable forward options elsewhere.

GOALKEEPERS

Forget about Scouting Bonus: none of the eight likely starters between the sticks have ownerships of under 5% now.

We’ve gone relatively budget-friendly in goal.

Robert Sanchez (£5.3m) was seconds away from banking Chelsea’s third clean sheet in four matches in Matchday 4, only for a contentious penalty award – and Benfica’s first shot on target of the match – to send the game to extra time.

Opponents Palmeiras are no easy test but they are the lowest-scoring team that remains in the tournament, having failed to find a way past their toughest opponents to date, Porto and Botafogo, in 90 minutes.

The bookies, indeed, rank the Blues as having the best clean sheet odds in the quarter-finals.

Fluminense’s Fabio ($4.6m) is the cheapest remaining starting goalkeeper.

Again, the quarter-final opponent is a step up, but he has three 10-point hauls in four matches to his name so far.

In only one of his four appearances, curiously against the weakest opponent Ulsan, has he conceded.

DEFENDERS

With Chelsea’s clean sheet odds relatively high, we’ve doubled up on Enzo Maresca’s rearguard.

There’s a chance we might see Reece James ($5.8m) ‘out of position’ in midfield tonight, with Moises Caicedo ($5.7m) suspended and Romeo Lavia ($5.1m) an injury concern.

In any event, he’s capable of an attacking return. As a direct free-kick taker, he’s eligible for bonus if one of his dead-ball efforts goes in – which is exactly what happened in Matchday 4.

And as someone who is often earmarked for a substitution midway through the second half, he could repeat his trick against Benfica of banking a clean sheet before Chelsea concede.

We’ve got two representatives of the Real Madrid backline, too.

Borussia Dortmund have had a relatively easy route to the quarter-finals but have made heavy work of it, drawing against Fluminense and only beating unfancied Mamelodi Sundowns, Ulsan and Monterrey by single-goal margins.

Real should swat them aside but if the clean sheet evaporates, Trent Alexander-Arnold ($6.4m) has always got attacking potential to compensate. He banked his first of what will likely be countless assists for new club Real against Juventus in midweek.

Fran Garcia ($4.9m) has been impressive down the opposite flank for Madrid. An ever-present starter at left-back, he’s not blanked in any of his four appearances so far: a penalty award in Matchday 1 and an assist in Matchday 2 were followed by two clean sheets.

Goal threat is our primary reason for including Joao Cancelo ($5.5m) and Achraf Hakimi ($6.5m), too.

With a combined 14 shots at the tournament so far, both full-backs have been getting forward plenty for their respective sides.

Hakimi has scored in both of his last two appearances, while Cancelo assisted against old club Manchester City last time out.

The bookmakers think that Cancelo’s club, Al Hilal, are the third-most likely to keep a clean sheet in Matchday 5, after Chelsea and Real.

MIDFIELDERS

There’s a double-up on Real assets in midfield, too.

Federico Valverde ($7.5m), not really known for his goalscoring, is a man reborn under Xabi Alonso. His total of 15 shots is the highest of all Fantasy midfielders, with his xG of 2.36 second only to striker Gonzalo Garcia ($5.1m) among Real assets.

“Fede Valverde’s biggest quality is his ball carrying and breaking the lines with that. We want him running straight at the opponent, not receiving the ball with his back to the goal.” – Xabi Alonso

Jude Bellingham ($9.3m) offers a bit of everything, having delivered a goal, an assist and tackling bonus (twice) in his four outings so far. Lacking perhaps the threat of his free-scoring 2023/24 campaign, he’s nevertheless a nailed starter against a Dortmund side that has conceded 14+ shots on three occasions already this tournament, despite not facing anyone of real note.

There’s also the immutable law of the ex to consider…

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ($9.2m) is PSG’s leading shot-taker of the tournament so far with 13, while he’s joint-second among his teammates for key passes (five).

With Ousmane Dembélé ($10.0m) being eased back in after injury, Kvartskhelia remains our go-to route into the European champions’ attack against a Bayern defence that showed their vulnerability against Flamengo.

We wanted a Chelsea midfielder or forward for their meeting with a Palmeiras side deprived of two suspended defenders. The question is: who?

Nicolas Jackson ($7.4m) is back from a ban to challenge with Liam Delap ($6.0m) up top. Cole Palmer ($9.6m) is not really delivering value for money, and we have a $105m budget. Pedro Neto ($6.5m) may or may not be absent on compassionate grounds, which in turn may dictate whether Noni Madueke ($6.5m) starts. Now there’s Joao Pedro ($6.5m) to consider in a range of roles.

In the end, then, and despite the fact that he may be playing a bit further back due to the lack of Caicedo/Lavia, we’ve settled on Enzo Fernandez ($6.2m). We know he’ll start, at least, and he should get forward even from a deeper central midfield role. He’s had at least one shot in all four outings so far and trails only Palmer (10) for goal attempts (seven) in the Chelsea squad.

Finally, Fluminense’s Jhon Arias ($6.2m).

He’s hit double figures for both shots (13) and key passes (12) already, faces an Al Hilal side that conceded a lot of chances (and three goals) to Man City, and is on set-pieces and penalties.

FORWARDS

Up top, two of the joint-cheapest forwards in the game and one of the joint-cheapest!

Marcos Leonardo ($4.0m) continues to thrive in Aleksandar Mitrovic’s ($7.5m) absence, scoring three goals, winning a penalty and even contributing shots on target bonus twice.

He comes up against Fabio, admittedly, but we need bargain gems on a $105m budget and he’s very much one of them.

With Kylian Mbappe ($11.0m) back from injury and there being a bit of uncertainty about whether he or the in-form Garcia gets the nod up top, we’ve opted for (hopefully) the safer bet in Vinicius Junior ($11.0m).

Second only to Valverde for shots in this Real squad, Vinicius is also their leading chance creator so far.

Finally, Harry Kane ($11.0m). He has the trickiest fixture of all in our Scout Picks XV, against PSG, but he’s bagged three goals and an assist in his last two starts in this competition, and there aren’t many attractive alternatives up top this week with game-time question marks over the likes of Delap, Jackson, Mbappe and Garcia, plus Serhou Guirassy ($9.0m) facing Real.