EURO 2020 Fantasy quarter-final Scout Picks player selection and captaincy tips

Our European Championship Fantasy coverage continues ahead of the tournament quarter-finals as we bring you our regular Scout Picks selection.

The latest results of our on-site captaincy polls are also included towards the bottom of this piece.

Don’t forget that monthly and annual subscribers can get Opta data on all the players and teams in EURO 2020 in our Premium Members Area.

SCOUT PICKS

We’ve a seven/eight split with players in action on Friday and Saturday respectively, with the performances of Spain, Switzerland and Italy assets set to be the difference between selecting one member of England’s in-form backline and a triple-up.

The return to fitness of Giorgi Chiellini gives us more faith in an Italian defence that looked uncharacteristically suspect against Austria, with Belgium’s own sub-par attacking display against Portugal (one shot in the box in 90 minutes) and fitness concerns over Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard another factor to consider.

Federico Chiesa also gets the nod at his affordable price, as widespread Italian media reports suggest he will be preferred over Domenico Berardi down the right flank for the Azzurri. In just 156 minutes of pitch-time, the winger has had seven shots on goals and created four chances.

There’s a Spain triple-up too after their swaggering attacking display against Croatia, with Switzerland’s dearth of clean sheets (they have been breached in all four of their matches so far and have conceded an average of two goals per game) furthering that cause.

Pablo Sarabia is our nominated captain for Friday: Switzerland have conceded more chances from their right flank than any other team left in the competition, which also influences our pick of the presumed-to-be-returning Jordi Alba.

The talismanic Xherdan Shaqiri is a bet-hedger in case Spain are as porous as they were in their previous outing and the likeliest fall guy for our primed substitute’s bench, which also includes a Denmark attacking double-up.

The Danes have massively impressed all tournament from an offensive perspective, with unlucky defeats against Finland and Belgium preceding two four-goal victories.

Martin Braithwaite is a divisive figure but stats-wise, he’s up there with the best so far in EURO 2020: only Alvaro Morata has had more shots in the box than the differential forward in the tournament to date.

CAPTAINCY

FRIDAY’S GAMES

The Fantasy Football Scout community are largely backing Spain assets for Friday’s double-header of matches, with over 60% of the vote in our captain poll heading to Luis Enrique’s side.

Morata is the front-runner with almost a third of the ballot, with Ferran Torres and Sarabia also gaining a double-digit share of the vote.

SATURDAY’S GAMES

England are, unsurprisingly, even more dominant in our Saturday captain poll.

The bookies’ favourites for the tournament are in the ‘easier’ side of the knockout bracket, with no other side seeded in that half of the draw higher than 10th in the FIFA rankings.

Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling hog the headlines after receiving a combined two-thirds of the vote.

Denmark’s gung-ho wing-back Joakim Maehle also has his backers following his huge haul against Wales.