Euro 2012 Qualifiers: European Championship Football Tournament

This Friday and Saturday sees the third round of qualifying matches for the 2012 European Championship football tournament in Poland and the Ukraine. Many of Europe’s biggest sides are in action, but where are we putting our money this weekend?

The first game that we’re looking at sees Portugal as the odds on favourites to beat Denmark on Friday night. Do Portugal deserve their billing as favourites for this match? In our opinion, no chance! Portugal were beaten 3-2 in their World Cup qualifier at home to Denmark and secured a 1-1 draw in Denmark in the return leg, and at the World Cup they played four games and failed to score in three of them. Since the World Cup they have played two Euro 2012 qualifiers and have been beaten by Norway and drew 4-4 at home with Cyprus. I see them losing this match and we’re backing a Denmark win at odds of 5.68 at online sportsbooks.

Another team that had a poor World Cup was the 2006 World Cup winners, Italy and this Friday they take on Northern Ireland in Belfast. Both sides are undefeated in their opening European Championship qualifying matches, with Northern Ireland having upset the odds by beating Slovenia in their only game and Italy coming from behind to beat Estonia and then thumping the Faroe Islands 5-0. Since their poor showing in South Africa, Italy have replaced many of the older players in their squad and they are looking a better side that they have done since they won the World Cup and they will want to extend their winning run to three games. However, Northern Ireland are a difficult side and we’re leaning towards this game ending as a draw, which we’re backing at odds of 3.17.

Continuing with our theme of sides that did poorly at the World Cup, we now look at the France v Romania match. France were woeful in South Africa and scored just one goal in their three matches before being eliminated at the group stage and were beaten by both Mexico and South Africa. Things got worse for them too as they were beaten 1-0 at home by Belarus in their first European Championship qualifier. They also looked poor in their second game, but two late goals saw them win a competitive match for the first time November 2009 against Bosnia-Herzegovina. Romania has drawn both of their opening games Albania and Belarus, and the last three games between these two sides have ended level also. Because of these we’re backing the draw at odds of 3.31.