EURO 2016 Kicks off – and it is the perfect tournament to sample in between two World Cups. Given that most of the best footballing nations in the world will be playing, except for a handful of South American nations, they’ll be plenty of names you know and hopefully some quality football played. However what usually happens in these tournaments is a lot of tense, tight battles. That’s OK too.
The expanded 24 team setup probably didn’t make a great deal of sense when originally announced, but the bonus is that the new format allows smaller nations who normally couldn’t qualify if there were only 16 spots – like Northern Ireland, Iceland and Albania. The fact that just 8 of the 24 miss out after the group stages is a little silly, but what can you do.
Big questions need answering, like the home ground pressure or advantage for the French. Are the Germans still too mighty? Are Spain a thing of the past? And at which stage will England disappoint their fans, and media? With their most dynamic squad in years, maybe this is finally THE year for England. Before the Brexit.
So here’s a brief few thoughts on the upcoming European shindig.
GURGLER PREDICTS.
OVERALL LONG RANGE SELECTIONS
WINNER – FRANCE $4.25
FINALIST – BELGIUM $5.50
SEMI FINALIST – CZECH REPUBLIC – $12
ENGLAND STAGE OF ELIMINATION – Quarter Final $3.25
PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT – A,GRIEZMANN $13
TOP GOALSCORER – GIROUD $15
GROUP STAGES WINNERS
A FRANCE $1.25
B ENGLAND $1.67
C POLAND $5.50
D CZECH REPUBLIC $8
E BELGIUM $2.10
F PORTUGAL $1.72
NOVELTY BETS
ENGLAND TO BE ELIMINATED IN A PENALTY SHOOT OUT – $6
ALBANIA TO LOSE ALL GROUP MATCHES $3.75
TOTAL TOURNAMENT DRAWS – UNDER 13.5 – $2.20
NUMBER OF GAMES TO GO TO PENALTIES – Over 2.5 $1.83
TEAM TO SCORE THE FASTEST GOAL – SWEDEN $26
GROUP STAGE ROUND 1 TIPS
Why wouldn’t we try a 12 leg multi that covers all games. Greedy Duck.
FRANCE to beat Romania
SWITZERLAND to beat Albania
WALES or DRAW v Slovakia
ENGLAND to beat Russia
CROATIA or DRAW v Turkey
ROBERT LEWANDOWSKI to score anytime v Northern Ireland
GERMANY to beat Ukraine
CZECH REP or DRAW v Spain
SWEDEN to beat Ireland
BELGIUM or DRAW v Italy
AUSTRIA to beat Hungary
PORTUGAL or DRAW v Iceland
$1 for $306
