The world's best have converged on Russia this summer to compete for the ultimate trophy, and you can do the same in the 2018 FIFA World Cup update for FIFA 18. World Cup Ultimate Team, a mode exclusive to the update, allows you to recruit the best players from every qualified national team to create your own international dream squad.
Since all World Cup FUT player items are live items, they can get ratings upgrades whenever the player receives a Man of the Match award for their performance in the real-life tournament. Now that the first set of group stage matches is completely done and dusted, find out which players were given Man of the Match awards and what their new ratings in World Cup FUT are. If you already have the player items in your squad, you'll see that those have also changed to the new, upgraded ratings. See the first group of Man of the Match awards below:
All World Cup FUT items can only be found in the version of Ultimate Team that is in the World Cup update, not in the regular FIFA 18 Ultimate Team mode.
Russia opened the tournament as hosts with a sensational 5-0 win over Saudi Arabia in which Aleksandr Golovin pulled the strings from midfield with two assists and a magnificent late free kick goal to earn the tournament's first MotM award.
Things didn't let up on the second day of the tournament; a thrilling 3-3 draw between Spain and Portugal was preceded by two tight 1-0 matchups in which Uruguay and Iran defeated Egypt and Morocco, respectively. Cristiano Ronaldo and Diego Costa were the main men in the Iberia grudge match, the former notching a tremendous hat trick and the latter snatching a brace of his own.
The first Group C matchup of the tournament was a curious contest between France and Australia; France picked up one goal via penalty kick and one from an own goal, while Australia's lone tally also came from the penalty spot. France's N'Golo Kante shined as he kept things from boiling over all around the pitch to earn his Man of the Match award. Luka Modric secured Croatia's comfortable 2-0 victory over Nigeria by firing home from the penalty spot, Yussuf Poulsen scored Denmark's winner against Peru, and Iceland goalkeeper Hannes Þór Halldórsson shocked the world when he saved Lionel Messi's penalty kick to keep that match level at 1-1.
Even though Brazil underwhelmed in their opening match, drawing 1-1 with Switzerland, Phillippe Coutinho scored one of the best goals of the tournament thus far, a curling effort that sent jaws dropping around the world. Even more shocking was Mexico's 1-0 victory over Germany in which Hirving Lozano carved up the opposition defense to notch his goal against the reigning world champions. While the final result was far from a surprise, Serbia's 1-0 win over Costa Rica was highlighted by Aleksandar Kolarov's incredible curling free kick goal from distance.
Belgium opened their account in Russia with a decisive 3-0 victory over Panama highlighted by a second-half brace from Romelu Lukaku. Harry Kane saved England's blushes against Tunisia by scoring his second goal of the match in injury time to seal his country's 2-1 win. Sweden also held on in another tight 1-0 win against South Korea with a second half penalty from defender Andreas Granqvist.
Both opening Group H matches didn't disappoint in the upsets department either, as Japan snatched a 2-1 win over Colombia after the latter played nearly the entire match with 10 men after Carlos Sanchez's third-minute red card. Yuya Osako scored the winning goal for Japan when he headed in Keisuke Honda's corner kick late in the second half. Senegal kicked off their second World Cup campaign in history with a bang, winning 2-1 over Poland in a dominant display over the European squad in which M'Baye Niang secured the result with his second half goal.
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