De Bruyne’s Fantasy popularity surges ahead of World Cup semi-final

The first 2018 World Cup semi-final takes place on Tuesday evening as France and Belgium meet in Saint Petersburg.

The pool of players available to Fantasy managers is now at its lowest, although up to six assets from any of the four semi-finalists are allowed in our squads from this point.

Kevin De Bruyne (£9.8m) appears to have picked up many of Philippe Coutinho’s former owners and is the most-bought player of this round in the McDonald’s FIFA game. Just over 450,000 managers had transferred in the Manchester City midfielder, who scored in Belgium’s quarter-final win over Brazil, at the time of writing and De Bruyne now sits in over 37% of Fantasy squads.

Despite not scoring since the second round of group matches, Romelu Lukaku (£10.0m) is still the most-owned Belgian asset at this point, a nose ahead of De Bruyne. No player has been presented with more “big chances” than Lukaku at this World Cup.

Eden Hazard (£10.1m) is another Belgian forward who hasn’t scored since the 5-2 win over Tunisia, despite having more penalty box touches than any player who plays for one of the four semi-finalists. The Chelsea man features in just under a fifth of McDonald’s FIFA squads.

Thibaut Courtois (£6.0m), who racked up nine saves in the 2-1 win over Brazil, features in 30.4% of Fantasy sides.

Belgium will be without the services of Thomas Meunier (£6.0m), who is suspended after collecting two bookings.

With three goals apiece at the tournament, Kylian Mbappe (£9.1m) and Antoine Griezmann (£10.0m) feature in 35.4% and 26.5% of McDonald’s FIFA teams respectively.

France have registered more clean sheets than the other three nations who have made it to the last four and Raphael Varane (£6.0m), who was on target in the quarter-final victory over Uruguay, is now the most-owned defender in the McDonald’s FIFA game: just over a third of Fantasy managers have selected the Real Madrid centre-back.

Benjamin Pavard remains excellent value at £4.5m and was the third-most bought player in McDonald’s FIFA ahead of tonight’s semi-final.

Blaise Matuidi (£7.2m) replaces Corentin Tolisso (£7.3m) in Didier Deschamps’ starting XI this evening.

France XI (4-2-3-1): Lloris; Pavard, Varane, Umtiti, Hernandez; Pogba, Kante; Matuidi, Mbappe, Griezmann; Giroud

Belgium XI (3-5-2): Courtois; Alderweireld, Kompany, Vertonghen; Chadli, Fellaini, Dembele, Witsel, De Bruyne; Hazard, Lukaku

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, 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 detailing 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.