Time to start looking at the markets for the European Championships this summer! Outright: Spain 5/2 Germany 10/3 Holland 7/1 England 10/1 France 12/1 Italy 14/1 Portugal 18/1 Russia 20/1 Croatia 40/1 Ukraine 40/1 Poland 50/1 Czech Republic 50/1 Sweden 66/1 Ireland 80/1 Greece 80/1 Denmark 100/1 Top Goalscorer: Mario Gomez 7/1 Robin Van Persie 10/1 David Villa 14/1 Cristiano Ronaldo 14/1 Mirolsav Klose 14/1 Fernando Llorente 16/1 Klass Jan Huntelaar 20/1 Fernando Torres 20/1 Karim Benzema 20/1 Mario Balotelli 20/1 Roberto Soldado 20/1 Alvaro Negredo 20/1 Giampaolo Pazzini 22/1 Tomas Muller 25/1 Cesc Fabregas 25/1 Lukas Podolski 25/1 Antonio Di Natale 25/1 Wesley Sneijder 33/1 Arjen Robben 33/1 Wayne Rooney 33/1 Robert Lewandowski 40/1 Roman Pavlyuchenko 40/1 Andy Carroll 50/1 Zlatan Ibrahimovic 50/1 Nikita Jelavic 66/1 Milan Baros 66/1 Robbie Keane 66/1 To Qualify From Group C: Ireland 10/3
Going to back the Germans outright with perhaps a few quid e/w on the Italians. Gomez top scorer for me.
top scorer is always very hard to predict IMO. perhaps Gomez. I think 6/4 on england to be eliminated in the group stages is a good bet. They will have a miserable tournament IMO. I think Germany will win it outright. Their pedigree for these tournaments is always excellent, there or thereabouts constantly.
Lewendoski (sp) at 40's looks tasty. If the refs are as kind to Poland as the draw was then you imagine semi finals are very possible.
They play attacking football, should score a few goals in the group, I have a bit on him and the two Russians Pogrebnyak and Kherzakov. Going to do Benzema and France ew as a double. Germany are my main bet to win it but will do a few novelty ones nearer the time too.
Ronnie to miss a peno in a shoot out, Ronnie to cry when Portugal get knocked out. And Messi to outscore or equal Ronnies total number of goals.
Into 25/1 with Powers now. May back him e/w at 40/1 down the road in Bruce Betting. I have a feeling Gomez will score a handful but 8/1 is too short for my liking.
My local bookies doing money back if Spain win. Decent offer and I think the a couple of the high street bookies have similar offers. Germany and France will be my bets so that suits me.
The winner of this usually does the damage in the group stages, Villa scored all 4 in the 1st 2 games last time out, RVN and Rooney both scored 4 in 04, none beyond the group stage, Baros who won it got 3 in the groups and 2 in the QF. In 2000 Kluivert and Milosevic both scored 5, none after the QF stage. No winner has scored beyond the QF for 12 years and I didn't check further back than that so it could be longer. Following this rule brings in some of the poorer nations. Looking at the groups I think Spain, German and Holland are in groups were goals will be hard to come by. It's groups A and D where the shit can be found, Ibrahimavic looks good value at 50/1 and Andy Carroll also at 50/1 could be worth a small each way bet. Lewendoski top scorer Spain to win is not in the betting so it should be north of 150/1, should be something similar with Ibrahimavic with Germany or Holland to win. These are all PP prices so I'd imagine betfair can offer quite a bit better.