EURO 2024 Fantasy Matchday 1: Tips, Captain, Picks & Team

EURO Fantasy Matchday 1 starts in a few moments! There is a lot to talk about the best players’ picks, captain, chip strategy, or team selection for MD 1 of EURO Fantasy. 

So, without further ado, let’s dive into our EURO 2024 Fantasy Matchday 1 Tips. 

1. EURO 2024 Fantasy Tips for Success

We dedicated separate article to this topic, you can find it here: 10 Essential Tips for EURO 2024 Fantasy Success

2. Fixtures to target in Matchday 1 of EURO 2024 Fantasy

Let’s look at who are bookies’ main favorites to do well in MD1:

• Germany vs. Scotland: Germany 76 % to win, 42 % to score 2.5+ goals
• Italy vs. Albania: Italy 70 % to win, 31 % to score 2.5+ goals
• Serbia vs. England: England 67 % to win, 32 % to score 2.5+ goals
• Belgium vs. Slovakia: Belgium 66 % to win, 33 % to score 2.5+ goals
• Austria vs. France: France 66 % to win, 34 % to score 2.5+ goals
• Portugal vs. Czechia: Portugal 64 % to win, 30 % to score 2.5+ goals

Find over 2.5 odds for all teams in our article: EURO 2024 Over 2.5 Goals Odds

3. Clean sheet probabilities for MD1

Let’s continue analyzing bookies odds for Fantasy EURO 2024 Matchday 1. We used our Odds to probability calculator to convert other odds to probabilities as well, which helps us assess the potential of the following matchday.

Clean Sheet Odds Matchday 1

Bookies expect 7 clean sheets in MD1 – the most from all matchdays, so MD1 should be good for defenders. But which teams have the highest chance of keeping a clean sheet? Bookmakers especially favor Germany (55 %), Italy (54 %) and England (45 %) to keep a clean sheet in Matchday 1.

Clean Sheet odds Group Stage

Bookies favor Germany (1.44), England (1.43) and Portugal (1.33) to keep the most clean sheets in the Group Stage of EURO 2024.So if you are building your fantasy team for the whole group stage, you should have at least one defender from those 3 teams.

See our full table here: EURO 2024 Clean Sheet Odds.

Other probabilities

We looked at some other probabilities as well, you can check them in our separate articles:

• EURO 2024 winner odds

4. Best players from each nation

Which players should you consider when making your own fantasy team selection?

Top scorers of each nation in Qualification

We checked which player were the scorers of each nations in EURO 2024 Qualiffication. You can look at them in these articles:

• Group A Analysis
• Group B Analysis
• Group C Analysis
• Group D Analysis
• Group E Analysis
• Group F Analysis

Best players to pick at each position

Then we looked at players from each position: goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and forwards. We examine which players are best picks in each price bracket: budget enablers, midpriced picks, and premium options:

• Best goalkeepers to pick in EURO 2024 Fantasy MD1
• Best defenders to pick in EURO 2024 Fantasy MD1
• Best midfielders to pick in EURO 2024 Fantasy MD1
• Best forwards to pick in EURO 2024 Fantasy MD1

5. Best captain for Fantasy EURO 2024 Matchday 1

When we select a captain in fantasy football, it is all about the fixture. Basically, we try the pick the fixture that has the highest haul potential (or hattrick potential).

But because we can change our captain 4 times in Matchday 1, you should have 5 captaincy options available – one for each day. And if your first captain will not deliver you can switch captaincy to another player who is yet to play.

A captain for each day

• Day 1: Havertz (or Germany defender)
• Day 2: Dimarco (or Szoboszlai)
• Day 3: Kane
• Day 4: Mbappe (or Lukaku)
• Day 5: Fernandes (or Ronaldo)

Captaincy thresholds:

Standout captaincy threshold strategy: fixed captaincy threshold

So, when to change the captain? What is the satisfying amount of points? We usually think that the magic number is 6 points. So when your captain scores 6 points or more, you leave the armband on him. When he scores less, you switch the captaincy.

However, group stage is different, as we can change our captain multiple times, so our captaincy thresholds for group stage are:

• Day 1: 8 points
• Day 2: 8 points
• Day 3: 7 points
• Day 4: 6 points
• Day 5: 5 points

So if your captain score this amount of points or more, you will keep the armband on him.

Switching captaincy is a common feature in UCL Fantasy as well, so you can find more interesting information about switching the captaincy in our article: When to change captain in UCL Fantasy? All ideas mentioned in the article 100% apply to EURO Fantasy as well.

6. Chip strategy EURO 2024

We have 7 matchdays in EURO 2024, 2 Chips and 2 x Unlimited transfers. That means that if you want to do well in this game, you must use chips and unlimited transfers effectively. EURO Fantasy is a sprint, while FPL is a marathon and you must approach the game accordingly. 

Fixtures will matter a lot in EURO 2024 Fantasy , so you should try to exploit easy fixtures as much as you can. And chips will help you with that.

Stategy 1: Using limitless in group stage

The optimal time to deploy the Limitless Wildcard Chip is typically during the Group stage, Matchday 2 or Matchday 3.

• On Matchday 4 our budget increases by 5 million – to 105 million (+budget increase caused by price changes). So, we all have a higher budget in the knockout stage which makes using the limitless wildcard chip there less effective. And there are also fewer players to pick from in the Knockout stage.
• Also, if you would use limitless chip in knockout stage – on the next matchday your team would revert back, and you could have too many eliminated players in your squad
• Fixtures in the Group stage are better than in thekonckout stage. And with limitless, you always want to target fixtures where big teams play against “whipping boys” because those are matches with a lot of goals.

Strategy 2: Using limitless in knock-out rounds – an alternative chip stragy

However, if you decide to use limitless in the knockout stage, use it with combination with a regular wildcard (because you will likely have too many eliminated players in your squad when your team reverts back). For example:

• For Round of 16 set up your team with unlimited transfers
• For quarterfinals, use limitless chip to completely change your squad for just one matchday
• After using limitless in quarterfinals your team reverts back to your R16 team – and all transfers you made with free transfers before QF will be lost. So, before semifinals you would use regular wildcard to set up your team for semifinals and final
• Final – use 5 free transfers to get rid of eliminated players

With this chip strategy you would not have to rely on 3 and 4 free transfers before QF and SF to get rid of eliminated players. However, we still favor using the limitless chip in the group stage, where the budget is lower and the points potential is higher.

Our preferred chip strategy

• Our preferred chip strategy is limitless Wildcard in MD3, where we expect a lot of rotation
• Then using classic wildcard before Quarterfinals, where other managers will have just 3 transfers to get rid of eliminated players from R16

7. Team selection for Matchday 1