With the 2018 FIFA World Cup in the history books, FIFA 18 released its latest upgrades. In case you don’t know, Festival of FUTball provides players with the chance to upgrade their Ultimate Team squads with new items. Running the entire length of the World Cup, the new event features new World Cup in-form cards, squad-building challenges, and international-themed content.
Instead of releasing “team of the matchday” squads, as usual. FIFA has issued a new team of the tournament and an upgraded World Cup winners France squad. The previous versions of the Festival of FUTball can be seen here: Part 1 and Part 2.
Well without further ado, below is the latest instalment of FIFA 18‘s Festival of FUTball.
FIFA 18: Festival of FUTball Team of the Tournament
First and foremost, this team had been picked after the Semi-finals. So if you have any complaints, take it up with EA. With that said, the players selected were standouts throughout the whole tournament. Starting in goal, we have 91 rated Kasper Schmeichel. In defence we have, Andreas Granqvist rated 94, Yerry Mina rated 88, and 90 rated Kieran Trippier. The midfield sees, 94 rated Luka Modrić, 97 rated Isco, Phillippe Coutinho rated 93, and N’Golo Kanté rated 94. Up front we have, 99 rated Eden Hazard, Harry Kane rated 95, and Romelu Lukaku rated 96.
The rest of the squad includes:
- Edinson Cavani, 98
- Kevin De Bruyne, 95
- Kylian Mbappé, 95
- Ivan Rakitić, 94
- Hugo Lloris, 93
- Hirving Lozano, 91
- Takashi Inui, 91
- Artem Dzyuba, 90
- Mário Fernandes, 90
- Raphael Varane, 90
- Denis Cheryshev, 89
- Mario Mandžukić
- Guillermo Ochoa, 88
- Harry Maguire, 88
Thoughts
As stated above, the team was released after the Semi-finals of the World Cup. It’s easy to say now who should be in the squad or who should have higher ratings with the final being played. But, let’s keep in mind that this team was picked based off the tournament as a whole up until the last match. With that said, most of this squad is pretty accurate. The only adjustment I’d make is inserting Kylian Mbappé into the starting 11. The man is 19 and was terrorising the tournament. He’s also the first teenager since Pelé, yes THE great Pelé, to score twice in a World Cup match. That has to mean something, right?
On top of that, Mário Fernandes should also be in the starting lineup. Fernandes was one of Russia’s best players, and if it weren’t for his goal in extra-time, Russia wouldn’t have made it to penalties against Croatia. With all due respect to Trippier, up until the semi-final game where he scored a beautiful goal, his performances were alright. He did lead the tournament in chances created so I’ll give him that, but I think Fernandes should be starting.
FIFA 18: Festival of FUTball World Cup Winners Squad.
In case you don’t know, France is this year’s World Cup winners. If being crowned World Champions wasn’t enough, FIFA went ahead and gave the team increased stats. Must be nice being the champs eh?
Starting in goal, we have Hugo Lloris rated 96. In defence, Raphael Varane rated 93, 91 rated Samuel Umtiti, and 90 rated Benjamin Pavard. The midfield has 92 rated Lucas Hernandez, 91 rated Blaise Matuidi, 95 rated N’Golo Kanté, 97 rated Kylian Mbappé, and Paul Pogba rated 94. Up top, Olivier Giroud with a rating of 94, and Antoine Griezmann rated 98.
The rest of the squad includes:
- Nabil Fekir, 95
- Florian Thauvin, 95
- Presnel Kimpembe, 93
- Thomas Lemar, 92
- Adil Rami, 91
- Stevan N’Zonzi, 91
- Corentin Tolisso, 91
- Steve Mandanda, 89
- Alphonse Areola, 89
- Ousmane Dembele, 89
- Djibril Sidibe, 88
- Benjamin Mendy, 87
Thoughts
Now, these are the World Champions. So naturally, FIFA took that into account when upgrading the player’s ratings. The team was always going to be overpowered. With that said, some players got bumped up WAY too much.
The first being, Florian Thauvin. Thauvin’s rating for the tournament was 86, and I honestly don’t know what he did to deserve being upgraded nine points. Another player who’s rating confused me is Adil Rami. In FIFA 18 his rating was 81. For the World Cup, he was upgraded to an 86 and now a 91. Again, I do not know what he did to deserve that increase. Looking through this team, I could also pick some other players whose ratings confused me. With all that said, they did win the World Cup and this is just a video game. Of course, they have OP stats, and they are the best team in the world. Allez Les Bleus.
I hope you enjoyed this year’s World Cup and my coverage of the Festival of FUTball. Let me know in the comments who you think deserved to be in the team of the tournament and also your thoughts on France’s new player stats.
Also, be sure to keep an eye out for our latest review of the MOTM cards of the final rounds, which will be coming out soon.
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