Euro 2008 Kick’s Off
The Euro 2008 Championship’s start on Saturday and we’re highlighting what we think are the best bets for the four games being played this weekend.
Switzerland v Czech Republic.
The game that kick’s off the tournament features the co-hosts Switzerland and the team we think are dark horses for the tournament Czech Republic. Although host nation’s normally do quite well in this tournament the chances of the Swiss doing well look slim. They’ve lost their last four warm-up matches for this tournament and while their defence is their strength, they may not have the flair to trouble the opposition and goals may well be hard to come by.
At 8/5 (Bodog) Switzerland don’t appeal to us as much as a Czech side who had a great qualifying campaign and who have only suffered two defeats in their last eight games.
Even if Switzerland do raise their game in front of their home support we think the Czech’s will be too good for them and the 9/5 (Skybet) for them to get a win looks a decent bet.
It could be a tight affair as many of the opening matches in this type of tournament are, and the draw at 9/4 (Coral) has to be considered. But we’re going for a 1-0 win to the Czech Republic 13/2 (VCBet) and are taking Jan Koller 7/1 (Ladbrokes) to get the all important goal.
Portugal v Turkey
Portugal are fancied by many punters to do well in the tournament and they should prove too classy for a Turkish team that are more effective than pretty to watch.
The 4/5 (Skybet) for a win for Portugal looks pretty good odds considering the array of talent they have in the side. They may not end up run away winners of the match, but we think against a Turkish side who only won two of their five matches leading up to the tournament they are a banker bet.
Cristiano Ronaldo to be the first goalscorer at 9/2 (Bet365) looks a decent bet, given his club form this season and the correct score of 2-0 33/5 (Betfair) to Portugal is where we’re putting our money.
Austria v Croatia
Croatia will miss their star striker Eduardo in this tournament, but against the weakest side in the competition they still should have enough firepower to win comfortably.
With only two wins in 14 friendly matches Austria have it all to do here and to be honest if they can keep the scoreline respectable it may be seen as a moral victory. They are 4/1 (Skybet) to win the match, but given their form we’d be looking for double those odds before even contemplating taking a chance on the Austrians. They could surprise everyone and raise their game for this one, but the chances of that happening are slimmer than a size 0 model.
The 10/11 (Bet365) for Croatia winning looks brilliant value to us, as we expected them to be long odds on to win this game and it’s our best bet of the weekend.
The 2-0 win for Croatia looks a good solid bet at 7/1 (Bet365) but we’re going to take a chance on Croatia finding their scoring boots and are plumping for a 4-0 win at 50/1 (Skybet)
The over 2.5 goals also looks a good bet at 13/11 (Betfair)
Germany v Poland
Germany are favourites to win the tournament, and there will be plenty of punters taking the 1/2 (Bodog) on them beating Poland. Germany are notorious slow starters in tournaments and it’s worth noting they haven’t won a single game in this Championship since their victory in the final back in 1996.
With this in mind we reckon this match has all the makings of a major upset and at 13/2 (Skybet) for a Poland win, we think it’s worth taking a chance on them. A draw is a generous 11/4 (Bet365) and could also be worthwhile backing.
Poland are strong defensively and have a great work rate and the Germans may just find it tough to break them down, so -we’re going for the first upset of the competition in this match and think Poland could be worth a chance at 22/1 (Betfair) to win 1-0.