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            <p>The brilliant <a href="https://twitter.com/BigManBakar">@BigManBakar</a> shares his FIFA World Cup Fantasy Matchday 1 squad for the first round, powered by Fantasy Football Hub insights and his stellar FPL record.</p>
<p>You can view the rest of our World Cup Fantasy content <a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/world-cup-fantasy-tips-ultimate-guide/">here</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Bakar's World Cup Fantasy Matchday 1 team</h2>
<h3 class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">World Cup Fantasy: My Strategy &amp; Opening Squad</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">Hello everyone, I hope you're all enjoying the summer break before the tournament madness kicks off!</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">I've put together my first World Cup fantasy draft, and wanted to walk you through the thinking behind it before revealing the squad at the end.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">Be aggressive early</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">The core philosophy here is simple: be aggressive, especially in the opening matchdays.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">In a short-format competition like this, you need to bank points quickly.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">The most favourable, lopsided fixtures tend to cluster in the early rounds before the group stage settles, so waiting around to make your moves is a risky game.</p>
<div id="attachment_47099" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-47099" class="size-full wp-image-47099" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/GettyImages-1309638466.jpg" alt="cucurella fpl" width="1024" height="683" /></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-47099" class="wp-caption-text">Marc Cucurella. Picture by Getty Images</p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">Chasing the scouting bonus</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">A big chunk of my planning has gone into maximising the scouting bonus.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">For those who don't know the rule: any player who scores more than 4 points and has under 5% ownership picks up 2 extra bonus points.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">It's a meaningful edge, and finding those low-owned differentials can really separate the contenders from the rest of the field.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">Since the top attackers are the obvious picks and will be heavily owned across the board, I've focused the scouting bonus hunt in defence.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">That's where you're most likely to find sub-5% gems racking up clean sheets and bonus points.</p>
<div id="attachment_79718" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-79718" class="size-full wp-image-79718" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/GettyImages-2279320192.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" /></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-79718" class="wp-caption-text">Colombia defender Johan Mojica. Picture by Getty Images</p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">Spending up in attack</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">The draft is fairly affordable overall, so I've chosen to put the bulk of my budget into attack.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">The standout players there are pretty hard to avoid anyway, so it makes sense to own them and look for the value elsewhere.</p>
<div id="attachment_79719" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-79719" class="size-full wp-image-79719" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/GettyImages-2240079582.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" /></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-79719" class="wp-caption-text">Erling Haaland. Picture by Getty Images</p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">Flexible captaincy and substitution planning</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">One thing I'm really trying to lean into is the flexibility the game gives you around captaincy and manual substitutions.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">You can make changes on different days within a matchday, so I've tried to pick players playing across different days.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">That gives me as many decision points as possible, while also allowing me the flexibility to play along with the armband.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">Wildcard in Matchday 3</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">The plan is to hold my Wildcard firm through Matchdays 1 and 2.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">Rotation should be pretty minimal while teams are still battling to qualify, so the squad is set to hold up well enough across those first two rounds.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">By Matchday 3 though, fixture swings become more pronounced and some sides may already be through, which is exactly when rotation risk starts creeping up. For that reason it feels like the right moment to use the Wildcard and reshape things.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal">The squad</h3>
<p>You can see my full squad ahead of Matchday 1 below:</p>
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BigManBakar’s World Cup Fantasy 2026 Matchday 1 team reveal

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