Fantrax NMA Blog Cup Quarterfinal Results

GW-34 saw the quarter finals of the NMA Blog Cup, and the unexpected postponement of Man United v Liverpool certainly had a big impact on the results. The random draw ended up pitting the highest scoring four teams against each other — and of course the lowest-scoring four teams in the same way. Let’s have a look at the four matches and see how they panned out.

Team geneeyow 27.5 : 57 HELLENIC POWER

This one went with form, although both teams were probably quite disappointed with their overall performance. Team geneeyow suffered badly from no-shows, only managing to field four players. Five of the missing players were in the confirmed lineups for the Man United v Liverpool match. The only player who scored over 10 points was the goalkeeper Lloris. HELLENIC POWER fared somewhat better, with only one no-show. The top scorer was Tottenham’s Son, and they also included Lloris and Iheanacho. So it is HELLENIC POWER who goes through to the semifinals with the lowest winning score of the round.

~

Team DevilinRed 43 : 65.5 Team Chris_Manfredi

This is another game that went to the favorite, but again neither team scored particularly well. Team DevilinRed had six no-shows, five from the postponement. Their top-scorer was Brighton’s Webster, and they also fielded Iheanacho and Mount. Team Chris_Manfredi had only one no show but also suffered the negative from Newcastle’s Dubravka. But he had Son and Iheanacho who along with another seven producing players added up to a fairly comfortable win.

~

Both of those ties could have been very different if the Man Utd v Liverpool game hadn’t been postponed.

The other two pairings were higher scoring and much less affected by the postponement.

Team taquito 74 : 105.5 Team stallexpress

Again this was a win for the higher-ranked team. Team taquito had two no-shows, and goalkeeper Ederson was the highest scoring player, along with Leicester’s Iheanacho and Chelsea’s Mount. Team stallexpress had a very good week with only one no show. The scoring was led by Bale followed by good contributions from two Mendys (Chelsea’s and Man City’s) as well as Iheanacho.

~

Ledang LFC 89 : 111.5 Team 1998jjb

This was the only game that ended up with a win for the lower-ranked team. Ledang LFC posted a decent score despite two no-shows. Their scoring was led by Son and included E. Mendy, Iheanacho and Traore. They will feel disappointed to have posted the highest losing score of the week (especially since it was 32 points more than one of the winning scores). But they were up against the in-form Team 1998jjb who, despite also having two no shows, found big contributions from Bale, E. Mendy, Iheanacho and Mount.

So overall we had two games that were largely decided by the postponement and two that were largely decided by picking Bale over Son. Such are the vagaries of a head-to-head competition!

Well done to the winners! The semifinals will take place in official GW-36*, so no doubt our semifinalists are already planning their teams for that week. I’ll post an article with the draw nearer its deadline.

* Pay no attention to Fantrax’s numbering of game-weeks. Fantrax is giving us a chance to spruce up our lineups in the middle of GW-35 (between the weekend’s “normal” set of ten matches and the extra matches that give FPL its doubles). After that, Fantrax’s numbering may run high in the final weeks of the season.

~

How did you do? Are you one of the lucky remaining four? One of the unfortunate losers? If you were on the sidelines, how did your game-week compare to our competitors? If you’re left in the competition, who would you like to be pitted against, or who would you prefer to avoid? Please let us know in the comments below!

~