Euro 2008 Group C and D - First Group Matches
It’s the turn of teams in Group C and D to get their Euro 2008 campaigns underway with the matches in “ The Group of Death” featuring, France Holland, Italy and Romania likely to take centre-stage.
Of all the games so far, the opening two in group C are probably the hardest to forecast the likely outcome of, so it could be rather than the match betting other markets could provide better betting opportunities.
Romania v France
With all the media interest centred on France, Italy and Holland, Romania have slipped under the radar a bit in this group, but they shouldn’t be seen as no-hopers and cannot be underestimated.
Romania had the best qualifying record of the four teams in this group, losing only one match, and the Dutch could only take one point from them in their two qualifying ties, so they do have a chance in this group especially if they can avoid defeat in their first match against France.
Averaging two goals a game in their last eight matches Romania know how to find the back of the net and with Adrian Mutu seeming to have found his goalscoring touch again the 9/2 (Bodog) on a Romania win is no forlorn hope.
France have a good record against Romania in head –to-head encounters having won 6 drawn 1 and losing 3. With there only being one draw previously we think there will be a winner in this match and so we’re going to overlook the draw 5/2 (Coral).
We reckon this will be close and are taking France 4/5 (VCbet) to just edge it. We’re predicting a 2-1 win for France 7/1 (Skybet).
Netherlands v Italy
Holland have played Italy four times in competitive matches and just have the edge with two wins a draw and one defeat in that time. Bookmakers can’t seem to make up their mind on this one and that’s reflected in the fact you can get odds against on both teams winning the match.
At 23/10 (Bet365) to win the match Holland will have plenty of supporters, but we’re going for the draw 2/1 (Paddy Power) to be the likely outcome.
World Champions Italy are definitely a decent price at 6/4 (Ladbrokes) to win the game and that does look good value.
With both teams liking to attack goals look likely in the game and we’re taking the 1-1 correct score at 28/5 (Betfair). First goalscorers worth considering are Luca Toni for Italy at 11/2 (Bet365) and Van Nistelrooy 13/2 (Bet365)
Spain v Russia
Although Russia will have a decent chance of qualifying from this group Spain may have too much class for them in this opening Group D game. Russia lost 1-0 to Spain in Euro 2004 and that could well be the outcome again here tonight.
Spain have plenty of attacking quality and striker Fernando Torres could be one of the stars of the tournament. His power and pace could trouble a Russian defence that seems ill at ease against the direct style of play that Torres possesses.
Russia are 9/2 (Skybet) to beat Spain and those odds are probably just about right given the form of both sides. We predict it’s going to be a win for Spain at 3/4 (Paddy Power) and the 2-0 correct score 6/1 (Ladbrokes) is the result we fancy.
Fernando Torres is a decent price at 5/1 (Bet365) to score the first goal, but it could also be worth backing defender Joan Capdevilla at 33/1 (PaddyPower) as he’s found the net a couple of times in recent friendlies.
Greece v Sweden
Defending Champions Greece are a bit like opponents Sweden in as much as you can’t see them playing wildly attractive football. They are set out primarily to try and not concede and like their opponents are more workmanlike than anything else. Saying that Greece didn’t look great defensively in recent friendlies, they scored 11 goals in seven friendly matches but conceded eight goals and Sweden will fancy they can get at them and score. At 2/1 (Coral) they don’t make as much appeal as Sweden and we don’t think they’ll win this one.
Sweden found the net only twice in four friendly matches leading up to the tournament, but only conceded once. They will be hoping the return of Henrik Larsson will see them become more creative and maybe increase their scoring potential.
The draw odd for this match are 2/1 (Bodog) and there is a possibility that the two teams could cancel each other out. However we think Sweden could capitalise on the Greek’s defensive shortcomings and we’re going for them at 3/2 (Bodog) to win the game.
Our correct score prediction is 2-1 to Sweden 9/1 (Ladbrokes) and think Zlatan Ibrahimovic at 6/1 (Paddy Power) is good value to be the first goalscorer.