It’s the third international break of the season already as the European Championships have reached the playoff stage. Not only do we have four exciting-looking ties to enjoy but there are some great friendly matches as well pitting together some of the teams who will be facing off come the finals in the summer. As ever, we’ve put together three accumulators of varying degrees of risk to give you plenty of betting options for the weekend’s action.
Easy Winner – 13/8 (Bet365)
- Over 1.5 goals in Sweden v Denmark (4/9) – These two rivals surely make up the most interesting tie of the playoffs. They have a long and varied history of games against each other and will both be going all out for the win on Saturday night.
- Over 1.5 goals in France v Germany (3/10) – Starved of competitive football, France will want to make this game as close to a ‘proper’ game as they can. Germany too would love a win against the tournament hosts so expect some attacking football.
- Over 1.5 goals in Spain v England (2/5) – England will travel to Spain wanting to prove that they can compete against the best nations in Europe. There’s little to be gained by an overly defensive performance while Spain have some frightening attacking options.
Medium Risk – 7/2 (Sky Bet)
- Poland to beat Iceland (5/6) – Iceland were the story of qualifying as they qualified at the expense of the Netherlands and Turkey. On Friday though they’ve got a tough game against a very good Poland side.
- Wales to beat Netherlands (19/10) – Wales are huge odds to beat a downtrodden Netherlands side who are at possibly their lowest ebb. The Welsh should have even more reasons to celebrate.
- Denmark/Draw double chance against Sweden (4/7) – Denmark are unbeaten in Sweden in qualifying games and they know just what it takes to frustrate their neighbours and give themselves a very good chance of qualifying come the second leg in front of a home crowd.
Long Shot – 58/1 (BetVictor)
- Ireland to beat Bosnia & Herzegovina (31/10) – Ireland have put in some brilliant performances in order to get themselves to the playoffs and they may have what it takes to turn in yet another show stopper in their away game against the in-form Bosnia & Herzegovina.
- Luxembourg to beat Greece (6/1) – This is one of the strangest looking friendly ties of the weekend. Greece, who were absolutely appalling in their qualifying campaign, have an uncomfortable-looking trip to Luxembourg. The home side weren’t exactly great in Group C but this is as good an opportunity for them to win as they’ll have for a while.
- Belgium to beat Italy (21/20) – Belgium are now the number one ranked national football team in the world and on Friday they are taking on 13th ranked Italy. The Belgians are one of the favourites to win the Euros in France and they can show just what they are all about by beating the Italians who were unbeaten in their qualifying campaign.