Cristiano Ronaldo faces DR Congo at home — model gives the favourite a high probability of winning, captaincy floor is strong.
WORLD CUP FANTASY 2026 · ONSIDE BRIEF
MATCHDAY 1 LIVECAPTAIN · DIFFERENTIALS · VALUEAI MODEL · UPDATES HOURLY
FIFA World Cup Fantasy brief
Decision-support for managers playing the official FIFA World Cup Fantasy game. Per-matchday captain shortlist, low-EO differentials, points-per-million value board. Our model + Premier League form data, pointed at the 2026 squads.
Not affiliated with FIFA. We publish the picks; you play them in the official app. Window: 11–17 June 2026.
MATCHDAY 1 · CAPTAIN SHORTLIST
Full 7-pick list →Who to captain this matchday
Lamine Yamal faces Cape Verde at home — model gives the favourite a high probability of winning, captaincy floor is strong.
Jamal Musiala faces Curaçao at home — model gives the favourite a high probability of winning, captaincy floor is strong.
FEATURED · MODEL'S TOP-2 FAVOURITES
Build your fantasy XI for France & Spain
The two model favourites (#1 and #2 to lift the trophy) face the toughest fantasy decisions — every premium is in their pool. Tap to pick your XIs for both, save on this device, share to X. Switch to other nations on each compare matchup.
INTERACTIVE · PICK YOUR STARTING XIs
▶ SHARE ON XBuild your XI for each side — share, save, replay
Tap eleven players for each nation. Pitch visualises your selections (4-3-3 schematic). Saved on this device so you can return to refine. Hit Share to post both XIs to X.
France
0 / 11
Showing Premier League names only — full 26-man squad lands when the football-data feed catches up.
Other · 7
Spain
0 / 11
Showing Premier League names only — full 26-man squad lands when the football-data feed catches up.
Other · 7
France XI · 4-3-3
0 / 11Spain XI · 4-3-3
0 / 11MATCHDAY 1 · DIFFERENTIALS
Full differential list →Low-ownership picks with upside
Darwin Núñez (Al-Hilal) — low expected ownership, decent projected return vs Saudi Arabia. Upside if they catch a clean route.
João Félix (Chelsea) — low expected ownership, decent projected return vs DR Congo. Upside if they catch a clean route.
Jonathan David (Juventus) — low expected ownership, decent projected return vs Bosnia & Herzegovina. Upside if they catch a clean route.
MATCHDAY 1 · BEST VALUE
Full value board →Points-per-million leaders
£4.5m for 5.0 projected points / 90 — frees 3.5m vs an £8m premium.
£4.0m for 4.2 projected points / 90 — frees 4.0m vs an £8m premium.
£5.5m for 5.7 projected points / 90 — frees 2.5m vs an £8m premium.
HOW TO USE THIS BRIEF
1. Read this matchday's picks on the captain / differential / value pages. 2. Open the official FIFA app at play.fifa.com/fantasy. 3. Make your transfers + captaincy decision before the matchday deadline. 4. Subscribe to the newsletter below for the brief direct to inbox.
Onside is not affiliated with FIFA. We publish picks for the official World Cup Fantasy game at play.fifa.com/fantasy.
SAME ENGINE · POINTED AT FPL
Build your FPL 2026/27 squad with the same model
Once the World Cup ends, the tournament minutes feed straight into our FPL 2026/27 captain shortlist, differentials and squad builder. Same model, just pointed at the Premier League.
WC FANTASY · FAQ
Common questions about World Cup Fantasy 2026
Schema-marked so Google can surface these as a rich result.
What is World Cup Fantasy 2026?›
World Cup Fantasy is FIFA's official free-to-play fantasy game for the 2026 World Cup, hosted at play.fifa.com/fantasy. Players build a 15-man squad within a £100m budget, pick a starting XI per matchday, and score points based on goals, assists, clean sheets, bonus and appearance fees. Onside is not affiliated with FIFA — we publish decision-support picks for managers playing the official game.
Who should I captain in World Cup Fantasy this week?›
Our per-matchday captain shortlist (see the Captain page link below) ranks 7 picks by projected points-per-90, fixture difficulty and minutes certainty. The current matchday's top pick lives on the hub at /world-cup-2026/fantasy/captain. Update happens hourly via our prediction model.
What's the best differential pick for World Cup Fantasy?›
Differentials are low-ownership players with above-baseline projected returns. Our /differentials page filters out Premier League top-six club players (proxy for low effective ownership) and surfaces 7 picks per matchday with a decent fixture and a real shot at a haul.
How does Onside's World Cup Fantasy model work?›
Three layers: (1) per-player projected points/90 from position, club tier and marquee status; (2) fixture difficulty per matchday from our opponent-rating probability model; (3) cost heuristic mapped to FIFA's £100m budget. Once matches play, projections weight by actual tournament minutes. Methodology at /world-cup-2026/methodology.
Can I sync my FIFA Fantasy team to Onside?›
No — FIFA Fantasy doesn't expose a public API, so direct sync isn't possible. We provide picks here; you implement them in the FIFA app. We may add a "paste your squad and compare to optimised" manual flow later in the tournament if there's demand.
When are the World Cup Fantasy deadlines?›
Each matchday deadline is the kickoff time of the first fixture in that matchday. Group-stage Matchday 1: 11 June 19:00 UTC. MD2: 18 June 16:00 UTC. MD3: 25 June kickoffs vary. Knockout deadlines per round. We list the deadline on each matchday page.
WC MATCHDAY BRIEF · ONE LIST, TWO SEASONS
Get the World Cup brief in your inbox — plus early FPL 2026/27 picks
Match-by-match predictions, captain picks for World Cup Fantasy, likely scorers, and the first FPL 2026/27 differentials to watch. Same engine that powers our Premier League tools, pointed at the world's biggest pre-season.
Weekly digest
Captain picks, transfer tips & differentials — every week.
One email per gameweek. Unsubscribe any time.
SAME ENGINE · POINTED AT FPL
Tracking the World Cup? Use the same engine for FPL 2026/27.
v5 depth-2 GBT stacker · 51k+ OOS predictions · MAE 1.92. Captain picks, MILP squad optimiser, AI Coach, set-piece intel — the production Premier League tools.