Monthly Archives: July 2021

Copa America Final: Messi vs Neymar?

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Bitter rivals Argentina & Brazil will face-off today with the Copa America title a stake. It will be a reunion of sorts for former teammates Lionel Messi and Neymar. The Argentina superstar and the Brazilian attacker helped Barcelona win the Champions League in 2015, a 3-1 victory over Italian giants Juventus.

Today Neymar will stand in the way of Messi’s dream of winning his first-ever senior title with his country. Messi won the FIFA U-20 World Cup with Argentina as well as the Olympic gold medal in 2008. However, he has lost multiples finals with Argentina on the senior level, including the World Cup final in Brazil 2014 against Germany.

Will this be his first trophy with Argentina? On Paper, Brazil have a more balanced XI while Argentina rely heavily on Messi who has already scored 4 goals and provided 4 assists (per some it is 5 assists). He is the leader in both individual categories but surely he is willing to give up on individual accolades if it meant Argentina would lift the trophy over Brazil.

Messi only won the Copa del Rey during the 2020/21 season, as Barca finished third in the league with Atletico Madrid winning the league title. On the European scene, Barca were a huge disappointment again. For Fantasy Football fans, Messi topped the charts after scoring 30 goals and providing 9 assists in La Liga during the 20/21 campaign. Messi finished with 130 EFL Fantasy Football Points ahead of Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.

Unsurprisingly, Messi also finished as the best Fantasy Football Player in the best Fantasy La Liga game at www.fantasy-liga.com ahead of Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema. To cap off his dominance on the individual level in the top Spanish Fantasy Football Game, Messi did not only finish with the most points but also ended up with the highest value and was owned by most fantasy football managers at 33.4%.

All the above will not matter unless Messi can deliver the Copa America to Argentina! The question is whether he can do it when he faces a home side with a better, deeper squad and filled with key players in almost every position. Brazil is not just Neymar while Argentina rely heavily on Messi’s contributions. Will anyone else step up for Argentina? Perhaps PSG’s Ángel Di María? If he does, then maybe Argentina will have a chance because Brazil’s focus will surely be on limiting what Messi can do.

Messi, Salah, Kane, Ronaldo & Oblak finish atop Fantasy Player rankings

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The 2020/21 season finished with some familiar names on top of the Fantasy Player rankings with Lionel Messi in first place followed by Liverpool & Egypt star Mohamed Salah while Harry Kane, Cristiano Ronaldo and Jan Oblak rounded up the first five spots.

Messi: Barcelona superstar Messi does not need an introduction. Despite Barca not winning the league again (2020/21 to Atletico Madrid and that’s after giving way in the title race during the 2019/20 season to bitter rivals Real Madrid), Messi still managed to score 30 league goals and provide 9 assists in 33 matches as well as 2 additional league appearances as a substitute. Barca & Messi did lift the Copa del Rey.

Salah: Liverpool’s Salah had a very good 2020/21 season with 22 goals and 5 assists in the Premier League, however, his club did not have a good campaign so he perhaps did not receive the praise some of his performances deserved. Liverpool did end up making the Champions League so maybe next season will be a fresh & better one for Salah and his teammates. He ended up with 122 Fantasy Football Points helped by the fact his position (as not a striker) earned him extra points from clean sheets…

Kane: Harry had perhaps his best season overall despite a disappointing campaign by Tottenham. Kane ended up with a remarkable tally of 14 assists in the Premier League- the most not just in England’s PL but also ahead of anyone from the Spanish & Italian leagues. Kane also ended up with 23 league goals to finish with 119 Fantasy Football Points- just two behind Salah. As a strike, Kane did not earn any points for clean sheets. As a great consolation, Kane finished top Fantasy Football Player in our sister site’s rankings: https://fantasy-premier.com/statistics/players

Ronaldo: The Portuguese superstar finished the 2020/21 season with 29 goals and 3 assists (started in 31 Serie A matches and had another 2 appearances as a substitute). If we count only the English, Italian and Spanish leagues then only Messi scored more goals! The two seem to be in competition even when not in the same league. CR7 and Messi were also drawn in the same group in the Champions League. Neither superstar won the league title, but, like Messi, Ronaldo also won the domestic cup helping Juventus lift the Coppa Italia. CR7 finished with 117 EFL Fantasy Points. Ronaldo finished in 2nd place in www.fantasyseriea.com player rankings. Visit the best Fantasy Serie A game & check the Player stats here https://fantasyseriea.com/statistics/players

Oblak: Finally the only non-attacking player to finish in the top 5 was Atletico Madrid’s goalkeeper Oblak. He was a key player in the club’s successful season which ended up with winning the Spanish La Liga. Oblak kept an impressive tally of 18 clean sheets and only conceded 25 goals in the Spanish League. Without Oblak, it could be said that Atletico would have failed to win the all-important La Liga title ahead of giants Real Madrid (Barcelona finished in 3rd place).