FanDuel Soccer: European Championship Daily Fantasy Helper for Friday 6/18/21

The Euros have arrived, and FanDuel is offering daily fantasy contests throughout the tournament. Scoring and settings are identical to the ones for Premier League and Champions League contests.

This piece will cover the main slate, and that kicks off at 9 a.m. EST. We have staggered start times, with matches kicking off at 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m. All betting lines come from FanDuel Sportsbook, and they may change after the article is published.

Slate Overview

Positional Breakdown

Forwards/Midfielders

This slate revolves around England, who are -340 to win against Scotland. England are one of the favorites to win the whole thing, and they'll be justifiably popular on this slate. You can make a good case for dedicating three attacking slots to the Three Lions. Seven players on England have anytime goal odds of +160 or better -- which can be said for only one non-English player -- and they are -215 to go over 1.5 goals. No other side on the slate is better than +120 to score two-plus goals. Feel free to stack away.

Harry Kane ($23; -160 to score anytime) is the only player on the slate with goal odds better than +110, and he's at -160 to score. He'll surely be chalk. Kane is on penalties and should be more of a focal point than he was in England's opening match, when he took just one off-target shot in 81 minutes. That match showed Kane's floor and makes it tempting to fade him Friday, especially with England having a plethora of quality attacking options. With that said, he's got legit multi-goal upside. All in all, I'll likely be light on him.

Raheem Sterling ($22; +145) and Phil Foden ($17; +160) started alongside Kane against Croatia. Sterling netted a goal while Foden showed flashes of his silky playmaking skills. In a match in which Scotland will likely sit back, Foden's ability to unlock a defense should be vital, and he's my favorite play on the slate. In that same vein, Jack Grealish ($14; +160) may be better suited for this match and could get a start after not playing in the opener. If he does, Grealish would be a stellar play, as well. Mason Mount ($16; +185) handled free kicks last match and should be on the ball plenty in this one.

Sweden put forth a good display in a 0-0 draw against Spain in their opening match. They have a much, much softer matchup this time around against Slovakia and are -125 favorites. They're +120 to go over 1.5 goals, the second-best clip on the slate.

Alexander Isak ($17; +160) and Marcus Berg ($14; +185) -- who started in a front two against Spain -- each could've come away with a goal in the Swedes' opening match. Berg missed a sitter that was worth 0.8 expected goals (xG), per FBRef, while Isak was Sweden's best player, creating three chances and taking one off-target shot. Sweden will have a lot more of the ball Friday than they did against Spain.

Croatia didn't do much in attack against England in their first match, generating just 0.3 xG. But they are a +110 favorite against Czech Republic, so they're not a bad place to look. Andrej Kramaric ($19; +210) and Ante Rebic ($15; +210) possess the team's best goal odds while winger Ivan Perisic ($13; +270) is a quality attacking force. Luka Modric ($16; +240) is typically a better real-life player than fantasy asset when he suits up for Real Madrid, but he'll likely take penalties, which is the reason for his decent goal odds.

On the flip side of that game, Czech Republic is an underdog despite a 2-0 win over Scotland on Matchday 1. The reason they're an underdog is that they produced just 0.9 xG in the win while Scotland had 1.8 xG. Patrik Schick ($21; +230) netted both of their goals, including one that may wind up as the goal of the tourney. That may boost his draft percentage a bit. Tomas Soucek ($16; +370) has a knack for getting into the box at the right time, which he showed for West Ham this past season.

Added time -- Oddsmakers aren't into Scotland at all, giving England -152 odds to get a shutout, but as we touched on, the Scots had 1.8 xG in their first match. Hitting on a goal from Scotland would be a difference maker on this slate. Che Adams ($17; +440) came on at the half last match and may start in this one. ... Marek Hamsik ($16; +390) is a focal point for Slovakia in his number-10 role. He created three chances and had an assist in their first match ... Ondrej Duda ($18; +410) has ugly goal odds but stared at striker for Slovakia and created three chances last match.

Defenders

I like the idea of saving salary at defender and getting the high-salary attackers I want. That leads me to Scotland's back line, which operated in a back three in their first match, with Grant Hanley ($10), Liam Cooper ($7) and Jack Hendry ($6) starting as center-backs. Against England, all three should be busy as Scotland figure to sit back defensively, giving them solid floors.

England's full-backs may offer attacking upside depending on who is out there, but it's not easy to predict which two will start after Kieran Trippier ($13) got the call at left-back against Croatia. If Kyle Walker ($7) starts again at right-back, he doesn't do as much in attack. Luke Shaw ($12), Ben Chilwell ($8) and Reece James ($11) have mouth-watering upside if any of them start. I'll be heavy on Chilwell if he's in the lineup.

Scotland's Andrew Robertson ($13) was immense in Scotland's first match, totaling six chances created and a shot on goal en route to 28.2 FanDuel points. He probably won't have quite as much freedom versus England, but if Scotland are chasing the game late, he'll push forward and likely fire balls into the box.

Added time -- Slovakia's Tomas Hubocan ($10) had 16.4 FanDuel points on Matchday 1, creating two chances and getting the clean-sheet bonus. ... Ludwig Augustinsson ($8) scored 12.8 FanDuel points in Sweden's first match and has a decent shot at the clean-sheet bonus versus Slovakia. ... Martin Koscelnik ($8) is a projected starter for Slovakia and should be pretty busy against Sweden.

Goalies

By the numbers, Jordan Pickford ($13) is the slate's top keeper option. He's got the best win odds (-340) and top clean-sheet odds (-152) -- both by a mile. He can get 17.0 FanDuel points from a clean-sheet win, and Pickford checks a lot of boxes. My concern with him is that he didn't look all that assured in the Croatia match despite having to do very little (one save). But he is the top play.

Robert Olsen ($12) was outstanding in Sweden's scoreless draw with Spain. He made five saves and kept a clean sheet despite Spain's output of 1.9 xG. While he's unlikely to see that kind of save volume Friday versus Slovakia, he's +102 to keep a clean sheet with -125 win odds -- both of which rank second on the slate. Given his situation, big game last time out and modest salary, Olsen might be the most popular keeper.

The Croatia-Czech Republic fixture is a fine place to look for a clean sheet as the match is +126 to go over 1.5 goals. Dominik Livakovic ($11) started the opener for Croatia while Tomas Vaclik ($9) was in net for Czech Republic. Vaclik made four stops in a clean-sheet win. Livakovic stopped just one of two shots but has the better win (+110) and clean-sheet chances (+152) in this match.

Added time -- If you go light on England's attackers, David Marshall ($7) makes sense as a correlation play who will likely be off the radar for the masses. Marshall could have a similar game to his first outing, when he made five saves but conceded two goals in a loss, resulting in 10.0 FanDuel points.