Euro 2016 Fantasy Football – Group F

Euro 2016 Fantasy Football – Group F
Even a cursory glance at the teams stats from Group F’s participants is extremely telling. Austria spread the workload around and contribute (not immodestly it should be noted) as a team. Conversely, Portugal (Ronaldo), Iceland (Sigurdsson) and Hungary (Dzsudzsák) are incredibly reliant on a single player’s output. This should make it rather easy to cherry-pick fantasy-worthy members for our squads however, as you’ll see below, Austria’s numbers have been almost too good to dismiss. The team vs individual dynamic poses a fascinating quandary.

For what it’s worth, I can see Austria upsetting the apple-cart (other online shopping carts are available) and pipping favourites Portugal to the summit. Sigurdsson and his Icelandic buddies should have enough to keep an uninspiring Hungary down at the bottom.

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Austria
[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]Famous People: Sigmund Freud, Mozart, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Adolf Hitler
Fact: The sewing machine was invented in 1818 by Josef Madersperger.
Football Alumni: Toni Polster

Austria were impressive in qualifying, demolishing a group that contained Russia and Sweden, and could be one of Euro 2016’s surprise packages. The team’s scoring average (2.2 per game) and goals against (0.5 p/g) are better than any of their Group F opponents. They clocked almost double the attempts on target (81) of Portugal (41). As a few interesting asides, Marcel Koller’s team are ranked 10th by FIFA which is their highest ever; and their first ever international was a 5-0 tonking of Hungary. Don’t be too shocked if that happens again.

Marc Janko (FWD – 7.5) was Austria’s top scorer with 7 goals in qualifying, chipping in with a couple of assists. The FC Basel talisman is a good old fashioned poacher who, when not on the shoulder of the last defender, is sniffing around the six-yard box for a tap-in. He represents a decent value striker in a group he should expect to do well in.

Marko Arnautovic (FWD – 7.0) will be familiar to FPL folk, although his classification as a forward here may surprise some and lessen the Stoke City star’s appeal. Mobile around the penalty area, he’ll still be a threat and have plenty of suitors. He didn’t cover himself with glory against Holland the other day, but he did nearly cover Kenny Tete with saliva.

David Alaba (MID – 7.0) has a fierce left foot and a keen eye for goal, contributing 4 times to the score sheet helping his team get to France. Likely to be one of Austria’s more popular fantasy choices, the Bayern midfielder is usually on free-kicks, penalties, corners and maybe even laundry duty.

Martin Harnik (FWD – 7.0) won’t be high on many of your shopping lists, but with 3 goals, 4 assists and rather tantalisingly, 17 shots on target (more than anyone from these four teams, even Cristiano Ronaldo ‘only’ had 16) he could catch a lot of people off guard and be, whisper it quietly, a differential.

Christian Fuchs (DEF – 6.0) will be, by the time the tournament starts, one of only 6 players left from Leicester’s Premier League winning squad. The left back was fantastic for the Foxes and there’s no reason to think the captain will let anyone down as part of an international back four that are every bit as tight.

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Hungary
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[/three_fourth]Famous People: Franz Liszt, Houdini, Atilla the Hun
Fact: In 1946 the world’s highest denomination was issued; the one quintillion pengo note.
Football Alumni: Ferenc Puskas

It’s hard to know how Hungary qualified for this their first major tournament since Mexico ’86. Their top scorers got 2 goals, and their top assisters got 2 assists. They averaged barely over a goal a game (1.17) and conceded nearly as many (0.83). They often play with 2 defensive midfielders protecting a back-four with just Ádám Szalai running around up front alone, looking for his loved ones. The team were impressive in the play-off against Norway, yes, but it’s slim pickings fantasy-wise.

Balázs Dzsudzsák (MID – 6.5), besides being a game changing triple-word score in Scrabble, is the Hungarian captain and likely their only player you’ll need to even consider. Akin to a budget version of David Alaba, the no.7 has a penchant for long-range left foot swingers and is rather handy from set-pieces. Whether his team will be in the tournament long enough for people to learn how to pronounce his name properly is in some doubt however.

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Iceland
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[/three_fourth]Famous People: Bjork, Kerry Katona, Peter Andre
Fact: Husavik is the best place in Europe to watch whales. Not to be confused with Group B, which is the best place in Europe to watch Wales.
Football Alumni: Eidur Gudjohnsen

Despite being the most sparsely populated country in Europe, Iceland somehow have two managers. Swede Lars Lagerback and native Heimir Hallgrimsson’s Nordic heroes had been THE fairy-tale football story until some English East Midland team saw to that. Nevertheless, the team will surely play with a freedom envied by other nations who have far more to lose. Pundits will pat Iceland on the head and say ‘they’ve already won’, but a team led by Gylfi Sigurðsson should never be underestimated. Showing a ruthless efficiency they qualified with a meagre 39 attempts on target, yet chimed in with goal stats second only to Austria in this group. At 37, not much will be expected of Eiður Guðjohnsen but it’s hard to begrudge the local legend finally getting some limelight on the International stage.

Gylfi Sigurdsson (MID – 8.0) is under no circumstances to be confused with the other Sigurdsson in Iceland’s Euro squad. One is listed as a 5.5 defender, the other isn’t. If that saved even only one person from smashing a frozen Sweet & Sour Battered Chicken over their heads in abject despair, it was worth it. With 6 goals from 11 goalbound shots, and 3 assists, it’s no secret the Swansea playmaker’s form is essential to Iceland’s chances of squeezing into the knockout rounds.

Kolbeinn Sigthorsson (FWD – 7.0) will be unfamiliar to most but the former Ajax player, now at Nantes, has rattled in 20 goals in 39 internationals. Surely worth looking at, at the very least, for the game against Hungary. In the last fortnight the striker has netted in wins over Greece and Liechtenstein. If that doesn’t get your pulse racing then I quite frankly give up.

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Portugal
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[/three_fourth]Famous People: Jose Mourinho… and… umm…..
Fact: At 17,185m, Vasco da Gama is Europe’s longest bridge.
Football Alumni: Eusebio

“Portugal is not a one-man team,” manager Fernando Santos recently said, presumably forgetting about last year’s Ronaldo-less 2-0 home defeat to the Cape Verde Islands. To be fair to Santos, Portugal barely looked like a team even with him. While 7 wins from 8 makes impressive reading, the 11 goal count total does not. In a weak group Portugal claimed all their victories by a single goal, hardly restoring confidence after their opening 1-0 humbling by visitors Albania. The future does looks promising for the 2004 finalists. Joao Mario (23), Andres Gomes (22) and recent Bayern Munich recruit Renato Sanches (18) should all be more than ready to step up to the plate for the pan-European 2020 event, but this year could be too soon, but CR7’s troops should nonetheless be able to progress from this group.

Cristiano Ronaldo (FWD – 12.0) realistically has no peers at this tournament, but don’t tell Zlatan that. Whether that will translate into a value for money fantasy investment remains to be seen. Whereas Real Madrid have other virtuoso’s that will keenly pick up the slack for Cristiano, the Portuguese superstar will have to be the composer, conductor and orchestra in France. His 5 goals were almost half of his team’s qualification tally, and his 0 assists suggest he only trusts himself to get the job done. 12.0 is a heck of a chunk of your fantasy budget, but then this is Ronaldo.

Rui Patricio (GK – 5.0) and Cédric (DEF – 4.5) could be good value defensive pickups for a team that seems unlikely to be involved in high-scoring games. Southampton right-back Cédric wasn’t the smash hit that FPL fans were hoping for at the start of the season, but should prove a reliable bet, and Sporting Lisbon keeper Patricio will hope at the very least to pick up a couple of clean sheets in a group that, Austria aside, is rather goal shy.

Thanks for reading Euro 2016 Fantasy Football – Group F. This article was written by Bryan Munich

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