What to look forward to ..................
June is going to be very busy, with domestic football from the US, Brazil and Japan, the Euros and Copa America, PGA golf each week including the US Open which starts June 17th and two grass court tennis tournaments (we will be covering Eastbourne and Wimbledon).
Several of you have asked, so I can confirm that I will be looking at Euro outright markets next Wednesday (9th) and the Copa America outright two days later, on Friday June 11th.
We tend to do well with all big odds bets and outright markets and the Copa has been kind to us in the past and the last runnings of each of the two big summer football events have worked out pretty well, we took Peru each way @ 25/1 and they lost in the final to Brazil two years ago and our sole outright bet at the last Euros was on winners Portugal ...............
Portugal should have won a major championship by now and time looks to be running out, their best chance is always in the Euros and they have finished SF-RU-QF-SF in the lat four, losing to winners France and Spain in extra time/penalties, 3-2 to Germany and cruelly to Greece in a final on home soil ! The really golden generation has passed, they have a world class leader in Cristiano Ronaldo and he is the focus of absolutely everything they do, but he will be 35 at Euro 2020, so I guess it is now, or the World Cup in Russia, or never ! We saw in Brazil at the last World Cup how Portugese hopes faded with the injury he carried into the tournament. He was nursing a knock through late April this year, but played 120 minutes in the Champions League final and I doubt if their were any real concerns that they would have let him spend a week on a yacht before joining his national team mates, instead of being in the treatment room. That is still a bit of a worry and everything they do offensively goes through him and they just have not been scoring enough, they have failed to score at all in 50% of games at the last three major championships, BUT odds of 18-1 are I feel simply too big and they look to not only be coming together under head coach Fernando Santos, but finally scoring a few goals, they might "only " have beaten Norway and Estonia in two warm up games, but they scored ten goals.
Ronaldo proved his fitness and scored a brace, but it was eight from elsewhere which offers encouragement. Eder ha resurrected his season /career after moving on loan for the final four months of the season to Lille and is hungry and fresh, he scored two, as did veteran Ricardo Quaresma who seems far happier back in Turkey with former club Besiktas and he and a number of this squad , like Pepe who is coming off a stellar season with Real Madrid ( despite the play acting !), probably realise that like Ronaldo,it is now or never for them.
Santos has big tournament experience and overachieved at the last two finals, taking a very average Greece team to the last eight at Euro 2012 and to the knockout stage of the World Cup for the first time, two years ago. They are not all veterans under his control, Portugal also have a handful of hugely promising youngsters Andre Gomes, Raphael Guerreiro, William Cavalho, Joao Mario and 18 yo Renato Sanches, who has taken Portugese football by storm and has just signed for Bayern Munich for a fee of 35€m that is likeyt to rise to 45m with add ons. He has been so good, so quickly that some rival coaches have questioned his age. He is unlikely to start, but Portugal have not only him, but a number of potential young game changers on the bench and in the starting eleven and if one or two could make the step up now, they could blossom. A player to really look out for is Joao Mario who might well be on his way to the EPL, the 23 yo has an amazing engine and will not stop running, that allied with great technical ability had him top of many "best midfielder in Portugal" lists this season and with an assist every 55 minutes in his last four appearances for the national team, he is clearly carrying that form into Euro 2016.
Austria, Hungary and Iceland make up Group F, I would consider those competitive rather than strong teams, although Austria have dark horse potential, but we can discuss that later in the tournament. Winning this section would keep them in the top half of the draw, overall that would be better, despite maybe having to face say Italy in the last 16, but I would not be as concerned with that as I would have been 2-3 years ago and they have a draw which could work out very well with just a little luck and if not, I feel they are running into form and can be a match for almost everyone and have the best player in the tournament. This is a squad that is often termed average, with one stand out player, but I feel they have some really promising young players, a good coach, are running into form and have some veterans in their best form for some time who know they are drinking in the last chance saloon. On top of all that, odds are good !
Portugal to win outright @ 19.0 general quote.
I am rather hopeful that we can again find some good value selections in both competitions pre tournament..
Good luck !
