The tournament is building momentum with all the heavyweights thrown into the bag together. Group C has proved an exciting contest, Italy have been pushed out of the spotlight by Monday’s clash with Holland and former favourites France have elevated to 12/1 at William Hill after a disappointing draw with Romania. Such an unsettled start has caused the bookies to completely revise their position in the ratings. The Netherlands have been pushed down to 5/1 on Paddy Power and a 5.8/1 on Bet Fair (to win).
Will Italy fall to Romania’s stubborn defence on Friday? Italy’s side is more than adequate to succeed here, but it’s hard to see them holding out to the psychological pressure when combining Romania’s strength against France and the underestimated Dutch’s success over them. Bet 365 has Italy 33/1 for Friday’s match. And it seems the bookies favour Holland in their head to head with France at 9/1 from Ladbrokes.
Germany are also doing a Cracking job of Group B, tomorrow could show an interesting match as they slug it out for top of the group with Croatia. Germany has been on good form recently but I doubt their group will present any real contenders. Germany will be untried if they reach the quarter finals and the odds are too low at 7/2 (general)
Portugal are facing a seasoned side from the Czechs who’ve been lucky to get this far judging by their game with Switzerland, I think Portugal will take control of this match early on and dominate throughout. Blue sq has Portugal at 4/6 to be champions. Yesterday’s match saw Spain deliver a decisive defeat to Russia and Sweden end 2-0 over Greece. Spain has shown that their side is up to the job with Villa’s hat trick paving the way for 9-2 tournament victory. Their next match against Sweden should prove reasonably straight forward.
