The final pre-Euro 2024 friendlies took place on Monday and Tuesday – and we’ve got the main Fantasy headlines from all of them.
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CZECH REPUBLIC 2-1 NORTH MACEDONIA
- Goals: Patrik Schick, Antonin Barak
- Assist: Tomas Soucek
The Czech Republic earned a narrow victory over North Macedonia in Hradec Krelove thanks to two second-half penalties – the last of which came deep in added time.
Chances were at a premium as a much-changed Czech team struggled to find their cutting edge in open play and needed Patrik Schick (€7.0m) to break the deadlock from 12 yards.
North Macedonia levelled five minutes later through Isnik Alimi and the match looked destined for a draw until midfielder Antonin Barak (€5.5m) scored the second spot-kick nine minutes into stoppage time.
Head coach Ivan Hasek made nine changes to the side that thrashed Malta 7-1 and they struggled to find their rhythm without Michal Sadilek, who’ll now miss the Euros after injuring his leg in a freak bicycle accident over the weekend.
On the plus side, two of their key players, Schick and Tomas Soucek (€6.0m) made significant contributions. Schick missed the entire qualifying campaign through injury, so his goal served as a timely reminder that this is a man capable of top scoring at the Euros.
Despite nominally playing in defensive midfield, Soucek – an everpresent and top scorer in qualifying – demonstrated his goal threat by getting into the box to force the foul that led to an opening goal.
Vladimir Coufal (€5.0m), one of three players back off the naughty step after being sent home ahead of the decider against Moldova, played in an advanced 3-1-4-2 midfield role and, like Schick, came off on 66 minutes just after the equaliser.
Despite scoring three goals in five starts in qualifying and producing a goal from the bench versus Malta Wolfsburg forward Vaclav Cerny (€5.0m) remained an unused substitute.
Instead, Hasek opted to start with Jan Kuchta (€6.0m) up front alongside Schick. He later brought on Pavel Sulc (€6.0m), Thomas Chory (€5.5m) and Mojmir Chytil (€6.0m) – who scored twice against Malta – midway through the second half.
Czech Republic XI (3-1-4-2) – Stanek; Holes (Lingr 89), Hranac, Krejci; Soucek; Coufal (Jurasek 66), Hlozek (Sulc 66), Provod (Barak 72), Doudera; Kuchta (Chory 72), Schick (Chytil 66)
NETHERLANDS 4-0 ICELAND
- Goals: Xavi Simons, Virgil van Dijk, Donyell Malen, Wout Weghorst
- Assists: Joey Veerman, Nathan Ake, Memphis Depay, Donyell Malen
The Netherlands gave another impressive display as they routed Iceland 4-0 in Rotterdam.
The hosts took the lead on 23 minutes when Xavi Simons (€7.0m) scored his first international goal, converting from close range after Denzel Dumfries (€5.5m) had nodded Joey Veerman‘s (€6.5m) lofted pass across goal.
Virgil van Dijk (€6.0m) headed in his second goal in as many matches after Nathan Ake (€5.5m) helped on a 49th-minute corner.
After that, Donyell Malen (€7.0m), on for Cody Gakpo (€7.5m), struck with 11 minutes to go, racing on to Memphis Depay’s (€7.5m) through ball. And once Depay had been replaced late on by Wout Weghorst (€6.5m), the former Manchester United frontman struck his third goal in four matches for the Oranje, finishing off Malen’s unselfish square pass three minutes into added time.
By recording their third 4-0 win in four matches, the Netherlands have sent an ominous sign to group opponents France, Poland and Austria. However, they have received some unfortunate injury news. Frenkie De Jong has had to go home due to persistent ankle problems, while Teun Koopmeiners (£6.5m) missed this match through injury much to the chagrin of Ronald Koeman.
“The fact that Teun is dropping out tonight is dramatic. If there is one player who deserves to excel in the Dutch team, it is Teun after the season he has had.
“We hope to have a result about Koopmeiners tomorrow morning, but I have bad suspicions.”- head coach Ronald Koeman
Should Koopmeiners also fall foul of injury, he has a more than able deputy in Veerman. He played alongside Jerdy Schouten (€5.5m) in the double-pivot to good effect, playing a wonderful pass in the build-up to Simons’ goal and producing outstanding stats. Leading figures were posted for final-third entries (15), chances created (six) and crosses (10).
While Koeman made nine changes to the side that trounced Canada by the same scoreline on Thursday, this is the closest approximation to the team likely to face Poland in their group opener.
So this may mean bench duty for Jeremie Frimpong (€5.5m), Euro Fantasy’s most-owned defender. He came on as a late substitute here, again ‘out of position’ on the right wing.
Netherlands XI (4-2-3-1) – Verbruggen; Dumfries (Geertruide 76), de Vrij, van Dijk, Ake (van de Ven 66); Schouten (Wijnaldum 66), Veerman; Simons (Frimpong 76), Reijnders, Gakpo (Malen 76); Depay (Weghorst 84)
POLAND 2-1 TURKEY
- Goals: Karol Swiderski, Nicola Zalewski; Baris Yilmaz
- Assists: Robert Lewandowski, Sebastian Szymanski; Kenan Yildiz
A memorable goal by Nicola Zalewski (€5.5m) earned Poland a last-gasp win over Turkey in a breathless match that was overshadowed by injuries to both of the hosts’ leading strikers.
The Poles took a 12th-minute lead when Karol Swiderski (€5.5m) pounced on Robert Lewandowski’s (€9.5m) loose touch to score. Turkey levelled through Baris Yilmaz (€6.0m) in the 77th minute before Zalewski’s fine individual effort.
For Poland, though, this was a tale of woe as their forwards keep dropping like flies. In celebrating his opening goal, Verona striker Swiderski injured an ankle and he’s now a doubt for the tournament.
“Karol has sprained his ankle and only after the tests will we know what the situation looks like. There will certainly be no changes made” – Poland head coach Michal Probierz
They’re already without Arkadiusz Milik, who had surgery after damaging his left knee in Friday’s 3-1 win over Ukraine. And now they’ll be without captain and talisman Lewandowski for Matchday 1. The veteran only lasted 32 minutes before sustaining a thigh problem, although Probierz has described it as only “slight”.
“Lewandowski suffered a rupture of the biceps femoris muscle, which will exclude him from the first match of the tournament.” – Poland statement
An open match brought chances at both ends, with goalkeepers Wojciech Szczesny (€5.0m) and Mert Gunok (€4.5m) pulling off outstanding saves throughout. Szczesny was the busier of the two, doing particularly well to deny Arda Guler (€6.0m) and Orkun Kokcu (€6.0m).
But his most memorable contribution was losing the ball after racing miles out of his goal to make two slide tackles. He could only look on as Kerem Akturkoglu’s (€7.0m) audacious 40-yarder hit the crossbar.
Half-time substitute Yilmaz’s equaliser was deflected but not undeserved and the visitors were unlucky to lose late on, given they had managed 16 shots to Poland’s five.
“What worries me is that we work hard, we try, and every failure affects our well-being. I’m not worried because we had 20 scoring opportunities. We need to have better efficiency, I am aware of that.” – Turkey head coach Vincenzo Montella
But Poland proved more ruthless as Zalewski, the Roma forward, beautifully controlled Sebastian Szymanski‘s (€6.0m) long ball 40 yards from goal and set off, cutting inside two players before rifling in his first international goal from just inside the penalty area.
Poland XI (3-5-2) – Szczesny; Bednarek, Dawidowicz (Salamon 46), Kiwior; Frankowski, Zielinski (Moder 46), Slisz (D Szymanski 78), Piotrowski (S Szymanski 46), Zalewski; Swiderski (Piatek 19), Lewandowski (Urbanski 32)
Turkey XI (4-2-3-1) – Gunok; Ayhan (Demiral 61), Akaydin, Bardacsi, Muldur; Calhanoglu (Yildiz 71), Ozcan (Yokuslu 61); Kahveci (Guler 46), Kokcu, Aktukoglu (Tosun 82); Kilicsoy (Yilmaz 46)
PORTUGAL 3-0 IRELAND
- Goals: Joao Felix, Cristiano Ronaldo x2
- Assists: Bruno Fernandes, Ruben Neves, Diogo Jota
Roberto Martinez used a wing-back system here, echoing the tactical versatility shown in qualifying. Then, they won all 10 matches with the most goals (36) and fewest conceded (two) of every nation. But recent friendly losses to Slovenia and Croatia came at the wrong time.
Still, when you can call upon Cristiano Ronaldo (€10.0m) and Bruno Fernandes (€9.0m), you’ll always be confident of going deep in a tournament.
A well-worked short corner saw Fernandes set up Joao Felix‘s (€8.5m) opener, just before a Ronaldo free-kick struck the post. Not to be deterred, the all-time European Championship top scorer netted a couple of left-footed shots in the second half.
Having racked up five attempts and three shots on target, Euro Fantasy managers will find it difficult to settle on three heavyweight forwards when they all look so good.
As for Fernandes, he had three efforts versus Ireland and assisted six others. Not only was he the number one individual for creating chances (37) and big chances (11) during qualifying, Man United’s playmaker set up the most Premier League attempts (114) during 2023/24.
Defensive coverage beyond Diogo Costa (€5.0m) and Joao Cancelo (€6.0m) might be hard to recommend. It’s not clear who’ll partner Ruben Dias (€6.0m) and the Manchester City centre-back stayed unused here, as did Bernardo Silva (€8.5m), Joao Palhinha (€6.0m) and Vitinha (€6.0m).
Portugal XI (3-5-2) – Diogo Costa; Antonio Silva, Pepe (Danilo 46), Inacio; Dalot (Semedo 46), Fernandes, Joao Neves (Nunes 77), Rafael Leao, Cancelo (Nuno Mendes 46); Cristiano Ronaldo, Joao Felix (Ruben Neves 46)
MOLDOVA 0-4 UKRAINE
- Goals: Roman Yaremchuk, Viktor Tsygankov, Artem Dovbyk, Georgiy Sudakov
- Assists: Mykola Matvienko, Georgiy Sudakov x2, Artem Dovbyk
An early goal in both halves ensured Ukraine were four up before the hour mark but the main Fantasy news is the withdrawal of Everton defender Vitalli Mykolenko (€5.0m) after 30 minutes.
It seems to be a reoccurrence of the ankle injury picked up in April, although Serhiy Rebrov is gaining optimism.
“Mykolenko has had an MRI scan already and will have another scan tomorrow. We will see what happens but I feel a lot calmer now from the initial incident.” – Head coach Serhiy Rebrov
On came Oleksandr Zinchenko (€5.5m), as another example of Ukraine’s decent squad depth. This starting line-up matches with the predicted defensive and forward lines for their Group E opener versus Romania, which means a talent like Artem Dovbyk (€7.5m) – whose 24 La Liga goals secured the coveted Pichichi trophy – may be limited to cameo appearances.
That’s because Roman Yaremchuk (€6.0m) netted within two minutes, having seen the Moldovan centre-back let a ball bounce.
Still, Dovbyk replaced him at half-time and – like Girona colleague Viktor Tsygankov (€6.0m) – scored after some nice interplay with the superb Georgiy Sudakov (€6.5m). The Shakhtar midfielder then grabbed one for himself, with Dovbyk returning the favour.
This was a comfortable Ukraine victory, their only one from three June friendlies.
Ukraine XI (4-3-3) – Lunin; Konoplia, Zabarnyi, Matvienko, Mykolenko (Zinchenko 30); Sudakov, Shaparenko (Malinovskyi 78), Stepanenko (Brazhko 68); Tsygankov (Yarmolenko 68), Yaremchuk (Dovbyk 46), Mudryk (Zubkov 68)
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GROUP A: Germany | Scotland | Hungary | Switzerland
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GROUP C: Slovenia | Denmark | Serbia | England
GROUP D: Poland | Netherlands | Austria | France
GROUP E: Belgium | Slovakia | Romania | Ukraine
GROUP F: Turkey | Georgia | Portugal | Czechia
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