Russia stars among most-signed World Cup Fantasy players

Denis Cheryshev (£5.5m) and Aleksandr Golovin (£6.5m) were among the top five most transferred in players ahead of the first match of World Cup Gameround 2.

The pair recorded double-figure hauls in Russia’s 5-0 win over Saudi Arabia on Thursday night and have earned a combined 143,000+ new owners since then.

Only Diego Costa (£9.0m) and Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.0m) were signed by more World Cup Fantasy managers before Gameround 2, with 94,000+ and 132,000+ new owners respectively.

Cheryshev found the net twice while Golovin provided two assists and fired in a stoppage time direct free-kick.

Furthermore, after the first round of Group Stage fixtures only one player had a higher points-per-million than Cheryshev (2.3).

That was Sweden’s penalty-taking centre-back Andreas Granqvist (£5.0m), whose goal and clean sheet against South Korea gave him a points-per-million of 2.4.

Despite the transfer market shift towards Russia midfield assets, the most popular player in tonight’s first match of Gameround 2 is Ahmed Hegazy (£4.5m).

The Egyptian centre-back continues to reap the benefits of a budget price and Fantasy managers will be encouraged by his role in keeping much-fancied Uruguay out for nearly a whole 90 minutes. He sits in 11% of teams tonight.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Salah could make his World Cup bow tonight, with

It remains to be seen whether Russia can replicate the attacking display put on against Saudi Arabia as Egypt are expected to be a much sterner test.

START LINE-UPS

RUSSIA (4-2-3-1): Akinfeev; Fernandes, Kutepov, Ignashevich, Zhirkov; Gazinskiy, Zobnin, Golovin, Cheryshev, Samedov; Dzyuba.

EGYPT XI (4-2-3-1): El-Shenawy; Abdel Shafy, Hegazy, Gabr, Fathy; Hamed, Elneny; Trezeguet, El Said, Salah; Mohsen.

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