World Cup Fantasy managers and football fans alike are overwhelmingly expecting a big win for Uruguay as they face Saudi Arabia.
While Oscar Tabarez’s outfit looked laboured in their opening match against Egypt, Saudi Arabia were easily exposed by Russia last week.
The hosts were winless in seven matches but fired five goals past Juan Antonio Pizzi’s Green Falcons in the first fixture of Group A.
At the other end of the field, despite a fast start, they asked hardly any questions of Russia’s makeshift defence.
Accordingly, Diego Godin (£5.5m) goes into another match as the most-owned asset, now with 4.9% more than the 20 percent registered ahead of Gameround 1.
Not only are World Cup Fantasy managers expecting a clean sheet from the La Celeste, but they scored more set-piece goals than any other side in qualifying with Godin at the heart of that.
He had more attempts on goal from set-piece situations than any other player (16), while his centre-back partner Jose Gimenez (£5.5m) scored from a Carlos Sanchez (£7.5m) free-kick against Egypt.
Meanwhile, Uruguay’s premium striker partnership of Luis Suarez (£10.5m) and Edinson Cavani (£9.5m) continues to be overlooked by Fantasy managers.
The Barcelona man has not had a percentage increase in ownership since the 1-0 win over Egypt, while Cavani comes into Uruguay’s second fixture backed by only an additional 2.3% of managers.
The two of them may have struggled to get on the score-sheet against a fairly well organised Egypt backline but they combined for 29 goal involvements in Uruguay’s international matches since October 2015.
Starting Line-ups
URUGUAY XI (4-4-2): Muslera; Caceres, Jimenez, Godin, Varela; Rodriguez, Bentancur, Vecino, Sanchez; Suarez, Cavani
SAUDI ARABIA XI (4-1-4-1): Owais; Shahrani, Albulayhi, Osama Hawsawi, Burayk; Otayf; Al-Dawsari, Al-Jassam, Al-Faraj, Bahbir; Al-Muwallad.
World Cup Data
We’re delighted to offer World Cup data as an early addition to our regular season offering to help those playing Fantasy games over the summer.
We’ve secured Opta data, not only for the tournament itself, which begins on June 14 but also from the Qualifying Rounds for Europe and South America and for international friendlies involving the participating nations. This includes all the matches played right up to the tournament kick-off.
Just to stress, this World Cup offering comes packaged with the regular Fantasy Football Scout membership.
Check out this new trailer previewing the World Cup content below…
McDonald’s FIFA World Cup Fantasy
Join our McDonald’s FIFA World Cup Fantasy league ‘FantasyFootballScout’ using the code: HEWJPVYR
Fantasy iTeam
Fantasy Football Scout is supporting Fantasy iTeam, a free World Cup game available on a number of mobile devices, including iPhone, iPad, iPodTouch and Android. We have an official Fantasy Football Scout League open to UK users only, with a £1000 of Amazon vouchers to give out, split between the top three performers. There’s also the small matter of £10k worth of prizes available in the main competitions: Overall World Championship and Manager of the Gameround.
Click here for details and here to sign up.
Our League name is Fantasy Football Scout and the pin is 1887.
Please note, users must be over 18 and based in the UK to join our league.
5 years, 10 months ago
Niece piece by Shearer. I was lucky enough to meet him a few times at Blackburn as part of the hospitality thing. He really is a funny bloke and a much bigger personality than he shows on the panel.