WITH the World Cup set to conclude in the coming days, let’s take a look at the XI currently at the top of Dream Team World Cup’s overall leaderboard.
Mark Hughes (probably not that one) is the gaffer best placed to claim the £25,000 jackpot for finishing first – and remember, the runner-up takes home £15,000 while third gets £10,000.
The Manchester United fan has a whopping 406 points heading into the nerve-jangling semi-finals.
Let’s take a closer look at his team…
Something tells us Mr Hughes didn’t have much confidence in England ahead of that crunch quarter-final.
No fewer than eight France players feature in the table-topping XI with just four fixtures remaining – don’t forget the third-place play-off.
No doubt Mark would have backed other defenders on his way to such a mammoth total because the truth is Les Bleus have struggled for clean sheets.
Theo Hernandez leads the way among his defensive compatriots and he’s yet to breach double figures.
Still, given Morocco’s focus on resoluteness and organisation, it seems sensible to back the defending champions to keep out the Atlas Lions.
Where France have excelled is up front where Kylian Mbappe leads the way with 48 points – only Lionel Messi (50 pts) has more among all assets.
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It’s remarkable that, at the time of writing, Dream Team World Cup’s best XI doesn’t include the game’s outright best player but perhaps Mark feels as if Argentina’s captain will be frustrated by Croatia this evening.
Of course, he may well be planning on transferring Messi into his forward line at some point today.
Olivier Giroud is now just one goal behind Mbappe in the Golden Boot race after his decisive header against the Three Lions on Saturday.
Following Karim Benzema’s withdrawal from the squad through injury, Milan’s experienced target man has stepped up impressively – and he’s been an absolute bargain at £3.5m.
Antoine Griezmann is yet to score in Qatar but he’s been a class act as France’s playmaker, providing three assists and earning two Star Man awards for his puppeteer’s performances.
It will be interesting to see whether Mark does indeed go for triple France forwards ahead of the semi-finals – another Morocco defensive masterclass could cost him dearly.
Danilo, Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes are players Mark needs to replace – will he bring in even more French assets or will he back either Croatia or Argentina?
Good luck to all those in contention of landing a life-changing sum of money!
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
