The Hive FPL Cup - Round 2

Welcome back to the Hive FPL blog where we'll provide a brief summary of results from round 1 before looking ahead to round 2 fixtures featuring the remaining 64 teams.

FPL gameweek 32 was a tough one for all managers with the likes of Man City and Man Utd not featuring not to mention free scoring Brighton who have a couple of players who have become fan favourites within this year's fantasy game.

As a result, it's no great surprise that big points hauls were difficult to come by. A couple of the pre-tournament favourites in @deniskj and @borran both scored over 70 points in commanding victories while the likes of @MasterG , @happyboy1, @pappyelblanco and @presh all put in very strong performances to suggest that they could well make it through to the later stages of this competition.

Somewhat surprisingly only one fixture was settled via a tie-breaker with @imarios unlucky to be eliminated on the number of goals conceded - well if you will put Arsenal defenders in your back line ...

The highest ranked player in the overall Hive FPL to be defeated in round 1 was @elmose (17th place) who went out to @vickoly . While elsewhere @shamzy can feel disappointed to have scored 67 points and still ended up being defeated but that's the luck of the draw in a knock out cup!

Round 1 of Hive FPL cup (128 teams) - Results

From here on out, I'd imagine we'll see significantly tighter matches as we begin to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Don't forget that we are also joined in round 2 by those teams who were lucky enough to get a bye in the 1st round.

Round 2 points will be accumulated via gameweek 33 in the FPL which sees the standard 10 Premier League fixtures take place across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night this week. That means managers must get their line-ups finalised by 6pm (BST) on Tuesday i.e. in about 20 hours time!

Of course all eyes will be on the Man City vs Arsenal game which is likely to go a very long way to deciding the title but there are also a few other cracking matches to watch out for.

Chelsea will look to claim local bragging rights and close the gap over West London rivals Brentford. Of course if they lose, then Cristian Stellini might not be the only interim manager to get sacked this week!

On that note Spurs entertain Manchester United on what I would imagine will be a very difficult evening for the club. It's one thing getting hammered away from home but if Tottenham put in that kind of performance in front of their own fans then things are going to get ugly!

And what about Leeds vs Leicester? 2 sides who can't stop conceding goals. The Foxes did at least get a much needed win in their last match while for the home team you feel they need at least a point to stop the bleeding with 18 goals conceded in their last 5 games alone.

Here's your round 2 fixtures ...

Hive FPL Cup Round 2 fixtures (Round of 64)

As our featured match for round 2, I'm going to pick out the head to head between @khaleesii and @carita-feliz . The sides delivered 63 and 61 points respectively during the last game week so this should be a close one.

First place opted to play their Free Hit for GW32 whereas the Smiley Team made do with their squad without burning a chip meaning they have strength on the bench including Haaland, Rashford and Luke Shaw.

However, even when First place's squad reverts to GW31 there look to be few similarities in players with only Haaland (obviously) and the in form Ollie Watkins as well as Ben White the common picks for both sides. That means the differentials could be massive.

It looks likely that First place will be banking on Brighton performing at lowly Notts Forest with 3 Seagulls players in the squad while potentially picking both Newcastle defenders must be a temptation against shot shy Everton.

Smiley Team meanwhile will be hoping that Marcus Rashford and Mo Salah enjoy their respective trips down to London while Alexander Isak's late season form could make him a very good signing for the run in!

As always, good luck with your picks and in your head to head matches and if you haven't already done so, join our discord channel

We'll be back later in the week with results from round 2 as well as preview of round 3.