European Championship
Your Euro 2024 experience wouldn’t be complete without the headache-inducing stress of picking a team to crush your friends and families, right?
Euro 2024 Fantasy Football, the official fantasy game run by UEFA, will be taking place throughout the European Championship this summer, with Matchday 1 getting underway when Germany host Scotland on opening night on Friday, June 14.
So how does the game work? How does it differ from Fantasy Premier League and what are the best ways to be successful? Allow Abdul Rehman and Holly Shand to explain…
You can make unlimited transfers before the tournament starts. During the group stages, you get two free transfers per matchday rather than one, like in Fantasy Premier League (FPL). If you save your transfer, only one can be carried over — meaning you can only have a maximum of three free transfers during the group stages.
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Similar to FPL, if you make transfers over your free allowance, you will be deduced four points per transfer and if you use any of your chips, then no free transfer is carried forward.
Below is a table of how many free transfers you get per stage.
Just like FPL, you pick 15 players for your squad, which consists of two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders, and three forwards.
How you construct your team will be different from FPL, though. In this game, you can make in-game manual substitutions and captaincy changes, therefore you will have to pick a rounded overall squad. In FPL, we usually pump most of our funds into the starting XI and then have a cheap bench. This strategy will not be optimal in the Euros fantasy game.
The increased number of transfers means we can afford to be a lot more aggressive with our planning and transfer usage as there are only seven matchdays in the tournament.
Abdul Rehman
As in FPL, points are broadly scored in Euro 2024 fantasy through appearance points, goals, assists and clean sheets. However, the scoring matrix goes deeper in this game, giving more utility to wider players in the squad, including more defensive-minded midfielders and centre-backs. Additional points are awarded for goals from outside the box and every three balls recovered.
Players receive one appearance point and then an additional point for 60 minutes on the pitch. Crucially, there are three points awarded for the “Player of the Match”, a switch from bonus points in FPL. This process isn’t transparent, with the award decided by a UEFA panel, but we’ve seen in the past that these awards are generally awarded to midfield leaders on the pitch like Toni Kroos (€6.5million), Rodri (€6.5m) and Bruno Fernandes (€9m).
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In addition, players are awarded two points for winning a penalty in Euros fantasy, which is a key source of additional points as this is guaranteed regardless of whether the penalty is converted. The same player can earn points for winning the penalty and scoring it. This could benefit Romelu Lukaku (€9m), Harry Kane (€11m), Kylian Mbappe (€11m)and Cristiano Ronaldo (€10m). A point is deducted for a player conceding a penalty.
Aside from winning penalties, assist points in Euro fantasy are largely awarded similarly to FPL. There are a couple of other differences, with a pass needing to be deemed an intentional pass. When a goal is scored from a solo run or dribble, no assist will be awarded.
Holly Shand
GO DEEPER
UEFA Euro 2024 team guides: Everything you need to know about the squads
More than anything else, however, manual substitutions are what really separates this game from FPL.
Between matchdays, you can sub out players who have already played for those who haven’t. When you set your starting XI, make sure you start with the players in your XI who play first as you cannot bring on players who have already played.
When you sub out a player, you cannot reverse that decision and you lose that player’s points. You cannot sub out a player if they were sent off.
If you don’t make any manual substitutions, automatic substitutions will apply to your squad, similarly to FPL. If you make even one manual change, then the automatic sub rule is disabled.
It pays to pick a strong overall squad with 15 solid picks. You will also want to cover as many ‘game days’ within a matchday as possible with your picks as this will give you more chances to change your team and thus give you more options to sub in your players if your starting XI assets blank. The same applies to the captaincy — aim to have a spread of captain candidates through a matchday.
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In FPL, once the deadline passes, you can sit back and relax. That isn’t the case here. If you want to do well in Euros fantasy, you will need to be engaged, logging in most days to make any necessary changes to your team.
Abdul Rehman
Captaincy is one of the most important elements in the Euro fantasy game, with the ability to switch to another player after each game.
Your captain will receive double points and being able to change captains within the matchday does mean that managers must stay on top of things and be prepared to access their fantasy team between games to maximise results.
To get the most out of captain strategy, I would aim to make a matrix and have a good spread of captains on each day during Matchday 1 at the very least.
Given the chips and number of transfers at our disposal, it’s not necessary to plan in-depth for future matchdays at this stage, given the number of moving parts involved and what we can learn from the first round of games.
For example, picking one representative from the above list of players in your team means that, on each day, you get another bite of the cherry for a captaincy haul.
Start at Florian Wirtz (€7.5m) on day one and if you aren’t happy with his return, twist to Alvaro Morata (€8.5m) on Saturday then Kane on Sunday, and so on. The difficulty is knowing when to stick, with a double-point haul a comfortable stopping point. Opportunities will lessen going into the final day as chances run thin.
Holly Shand
A good chip strategy is to wildcard in Matchday 2 and use the Limitless chip in Matchday 3. This fundamentally lets you choose a new team for the first four matchdays. After the first three matchdays, in the round of 16, you get unlimited transfers again to set your team up for the rest of the tournament.
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You could also swap things around and use the Limitless and Wildcard chips in Matchday 2 and Matchday 3. It’s a high-ceiling approach but can leave you vulnerable later in the tournament if there are a few upsets. Saving one of your chips for after the group stages is safer but this route does have a lower ceiling.
I will use my chips in the first three matchdays — it’s aggressive and suited to short-format games. Also, more importantly, it’s just more fun!
The highest scores are likely to come in the early stages of the tournament when there are more one-sided games and more teams to pick from. Once we get to the knockouts and further, the teams that go through will likely be the stronger ones, meaning more even match-ups and fewer goals.
Abdul Rehman
Germany, as the host side, should prosper in Group A, which consists of Scotland, Hungary and Switzerland. England are heavy favourites to progress as winners from Group C, featuring Serbia, Denmark and Slovenia — their most favourable fixture, against Slovenia, comes in Matchday 3, at which point there could be some rotation if progression has been secured.
Group B is perceived to be the group of death, featuring three sides in the current FIFA top-10 rankings: Spain (8), Italy (9) and Croatia (10), alongside Albania (66), who are the second-lowest ranked team in the tournament. Italy can be a wise target in Matchday 1 when they face Albania, but Spain and Croatia should be avoided.
France are the highest-ranked team in the competition and they face Austria, the Netherlands and Poland in Group D. The harder of their three group games comes in Matchday 2 against the Netherlands, with Austria in Matchday 1 a great fixture to target for them. Belgium potentially have the best fixtures in Group E where they face Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine, although it is widely thought that the golden era is behind them.
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Group F contains Georgia, the lowest-ranked side in the competition, facing Turkey in Matchday 1. Portugal are thought to be the main candidates to win this group, kicking off against the Czech Republic as the final opening game.
Holly Shand
Mbappe and Kane are tier one and the top two premiums to own. England are favourites to win the Euros, with France in second. Also, Mbappe is the favourite to pick up the Golden Boot, with Kane just behind him.
In tier two, I would say Jude Bellingham (€9.5m), Bukayo Saka (€8.5m) and Portugal’s Fernandes.
Then, in tier three, there’s Ronaldo, Lukaku, Phil Foden (€9.0m) and Robert Lewandowski (€9.5m).
It’s obviously going to be hard to fit them all in.
You could manage three to four premiums from the three tiers into your team and still get a good all-round squad.
With my chip strategy, I will very likely start with both Mbappe and Kane as they are both good captaincy options for Matchday 1, and they play on separate days. In my current draft, I also have Saka and Lukaku, and haven’t really had to make many sacrifices.
Abdul Rehman
Who are the best differentials and budget enablers to own?
For Matchday 1, consider Turkish forward Kenan Yildiz (€5.5m), who faces the lowest-ranked team in the competition in Albania. He’s easy on the budget and a differential too, in just 1 per cent of squads. If Italy striker Gianluca Scamacca (€7.0m) looks to be a starter, he’s a fine differential too before their opener against Albania.
Antoine Griezmann (€9.0m) also falls into the differential category, with the France forward in seven per cent of sides compared to Mbappe in 76 per cent, and ought to be considered as their ever-present playmaker. The double-up is an option given that France are perceived to be one of the best teams in the competition and with a prime opening first fixture.
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Into midfield, Belgium’s Leandro Trossard (€8.0m) is a nice differential at nine per cent owned to take advantage of their kind group. Elsewhere, Ilkay Gundogan (€7.0m) plays an advanced role for Germany and could be on penalties.
Sticking with the hosts, Robert Andrich (€5.0m) is a sound budget-enabler, with plenty of routes to points as a defensive midfielder, as well as some goal threat. The only downside is that he takes a Germany spot in your squad for Matchday 1, limiting picks from their squad in other positions. He is preferred to the cheaper €4.5m options.
When it comes to the cheapest defensive players in the game, Thomas Strakosha (€4.0m) is set to start for Albania and will be kept busy between the sticks in their group of death. If you can afford to push the budget, then the Netherlands’ Bart Verbruggen (€4.5m) carries higher clean-sheet potential for not much more in outlay, while England’s Jordan Pickford (€5.0m) is the most popular pick in the game, currently in 23 per cent of teams.
For the lowest-priced defenders in the game, we have a potential gift at left-back for Germany in Maximilian Mittelstadt (€4.0m), who is expected to be preferred in this position. Elsewhere, Belgium’s Wout Faes (€4.0m) also comes in friendly on the budget.
Increasing the budget brings into the equation Jules Kounde (€5.0m), who has the potential to start at right-back and comes in significantly cheaper than the rest of France’s back line.
Holly Shand
(Top photos: Getty Images)
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