EVEN the more lackadaisical Dream Team managers should start immersing themselves in our Euros fantasy game this week.
The tournament itself kicks off on June 14th with Germany v Scotland and so it’s high time we started highlighting some underrated players who may be flying under the radar.
How about Artem Dovbyk (£3m) for starters?
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The Ukraine striker heads into this summer’s international tournament having lit up La Liga throughout the domestic season.
As the spearhead for a valiant Girona side that punched well above their weight to claim third, Dovbyk finished as the top flight’s leading goalscorer.
He claimed the Pichichi with a hat-trick against Granada on the final day of the campaign to take his tally to 24 league goals.
This flourish was the culmination of an extraordinary end to the campaign that saw him score ten goals in nine games.
Antoine Griezmann, Robert Lewandowski and Jude Bellingham were just some of names left trailing in Dovbyk’s wake in regards to La Liga goals in 2023/24.
It’s simply a fact that very few players will head to Germany in better form than the 26-year-old so why has been selected by just 3.4% of Dream Team Euros managers at the time of writing?
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The fact he doesn’t represent one of the tournament’s stronger teams is undoubtedly a factor – Ukraine qualified for Euro 2024 via the play-offs (by virtue of their performance in the Nations League) after finishing third in their group.
Although it should be noted that Serhiy Rebrov’s side finished level on points with Italy during qualifying, in the same group as England – they drew with the Three Lions back in September.
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Dovbyk and company were dealt a difficult qualifying group but they won’t mind their draw for the actual tournament as they’re in Group E alongside Belgium, Slovakia and Romania.
In fact, most bookies reckon they’ll qualify for the round of 16.
Ukraine start their campaign against Romania in Matchday 1 and don’t have to play group favourites Belgium until Matchday 3.
With all this in mind, surely Dovbyk deserves to be more popular among Dream Team Euros bosses?
He’s reasonably priced at £3million and could helpfully offset the cost of other more expensive forwards, such as Kylian Mbappe (£7.5m) and Harry Kane (£7.5m).
At present, Dovbyk, who previously plundered plenty of goals for Dnipro-1, is only 0.1% more popular than Ollie Watkins (£3.5m), who is almost certain to start on the bench for England throughout the summer.
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Ukraine face Germany in a friendly this evening and will later take on Poland and Moldova so gaffers may be able to get a better read on Dovbyk’s prospects before the Matchday 1 deadline.
He should certainly be considered a viable option.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
