The final games in the group of death and what a potential night of drama we could be in for.  Can Romania make it through?  Will France and Italy being going home early?  I’ve not thought too much about tonight and decided to get my tips in early today, not because I’m confident, but because my head hurts working out all the possible permutations!!!

France v Italy-  A replay of the last World Cup final, with both teams looking a shadow of the teams they were 2 years ago.  Both teams will be relying on the Dutch to get beat the Romanians to have a chance a qualifying.  Italy could get through with a draw and other complicated scenarios, whereas all the French need to do is win (easy isn’t it?!!).  The teams have played each other 35 times in total with Italy winning 17 of these games and France only winning 8.  France beat Italy in Euro 2000 2-1, scoring the Golden Goal to knock Italy out. 

Euro 2008 Betting tip-  I really don’t have a clue what this result will be, I only know that there will be blood, sweat and tears tonight!!! So I will be going for for the ‘Show an card market’ on Betfair.  Makelele and Gattuso are one yellow card from suspension, but that won’t mean they will be on their best behaviour tonight!!  I’m thinking both players will be needed to make crucial tackles and one wrong challenge will land them in the book.  Back both to be yellow carded at 2.8 and 2.6 odds on the Betfair. 

UPDATE- (France 0-2 Italy)Well in the end it wasn’t quite the game that we thought it would be, with Ribery off and France down to 10 men, that action wasn’t exactly end to end and fast paced.  We win our bet for Gattuso being shown a card, a little consolation after 3 losing bets today.  It’s a shame because I was thinking of backing a red card to be show at 3.15 odds.   

Holland v Romania-  Holland will be fielding a few of their squad players after assuring qualification.  If Romania win this match, then they will qualify at the expense of Italy and France.  The Dutch have beaten the Romania 60% of the time they played each other, with Romania only winning 1 game.

Euro 2008 Betting tip-  This is another game giving me headache!!  Will Holland let Romania win so that two of their fiercest rivals drop out?  Or will they go out for the win tonight?  I don’t know!!! Does anyone?  We know Holland have qualified and will rotate the team, but they still have impressive players.  I’ll go with a small bet on Romania to do it tonight, qualification is in their hands and they should give this game a good go tonight.  They are currently at 2.44 odds to win tonight.

UPDATE-  (Holland 2-0 Romania) Of course Holland won, who could of ever doubted they would??  Another small bet that didn’t pay off, dissapointing but nothing much lost. 

An exciting night of football yesterday, Turkey reached amazing odds of 210 in running on Betfair, I hope someone made some money!! Croatia have already sealed their place in to the quarter finals, so it’s out of Austria, Poland and Germany to see which will qualify.

Austria v Germany- Qualification for Germany  is in their hands, getting one point in this game will mean Poland cannot qualify.  Schweinsteiger is serving his suspension due to his silly sending off against Croatia.  Out of the 11 times the teams have played competitively, Germany have won 8 times and the Austrians only have two wins.  The last four meetings have been friendlies with Germany winning all 4.  Austria need to get all three points to qualify and hope that Poland don’t win by a bigger margin.  This should make quite an open game from Austria, but Germany look to have the advantage.

Euro 2008 betting tip:  It will be dangerous for Germany to sit back and play for a draw, especially with the Austrians wanting to give it their all to get a result out of this match.  The problems for the Austrians is that they don’t look like they can score more than one goal, so if the Germans score first then they are in big trouble.  It is almost unthinkable to not see Germany win this match a qualify, but I’ll be backing Austria with  small bet to win at odds of 11.0 on Betfair.  Maybe….but probably not!!

UPDATE- Austria lacked the quality in the final third and losing 1-0 to Germany is nothing to be ashamed about, especially with the performance they put it.  With a few more quality players in the Austrian side, they could become a team to look out for in future.  Saying all that, though, we lost the bet to back them, going small was a good option!!

Poland v Croatia -  Croatia will rotate a few players in order to keep them fresh.  The two teams have met each other 4 times in friendlies, Croatia won the first 2 games, followed by a draw and a Poland win.  Poland will have to go for the win here, hoping that Austria also beat Germany, but Poland will have to beat Croatia by a bigger margin.

Euro 2008 betting tip:  Croatia have already qualified so will be resting a few players, but that’s not to say they won’t want to win this match.  They’ll give a good effort just like they did against England in the Euro 2008 qualification (anyone remember??).   I’ll back Croatia at odds of 3.15, Poland are favourites to win going into this match.

UPDATE- Croatia didn’t let us down, winning 1-0 against Poland.  There’s no doubt that a passionate manager like Bilic wants to win all his matches and that showed today even though they rotated the team.  At least we got a winning bet and at 3.15, it more than covers the small loss from the Germany match.

Group A, it’s time to see which teams will be going home in the third and final games of qualifying, a quarter final place is at stake.

Switzerland v Portugal
Turkey v Czech Republic

The Turkey match is the match to watch, with second place up for grabs.  Switzerland already know their fate and Portugal look like they will be resting a few players after assuring qualification, a match I’ll be avoiding!!!  Turkey have a poor record against the Czechs, 1 win out of 14 games, but of course it’s matches like this where history can be changed..  This is the first time both teams will have played each other in the Euros.

Euro 2008 Bettting Tip-  The Czechs look like a team that need some pace injected into them, Turkey could overrun them with the players they have.  Turkey have looked good in the past 2  games and hopefully winning 1 out of 14 games against the Czechs will mean nothing for this game, so back Turkey to win at odds of 3.7 on Betfair against the match favourites.

UPDATE: What a game!!!  Turkey trailing 2-0 comeback and win 3-2, they showed great heart and determination, making Euro 2008 a great watch.  Not only that we win our bet!!! At 3.7 it’s another big odds win for us and hopefully you followed my tip here, although I have to say I wasn’t feeling so confident or happy when the Czech’s second goal went in!!

What an unbelievable night it was yesterday…. yes another great eviction night for Big Brother.  Oh did anyone watch the football?  I missed it, I bet the Holland match was another boring game with no action or any goals as usual….

Greece v Russia- This match is being played in Salzburg today and both teams will be wanting to avoid defeat in this match in order to keep their qualification hoped alive.  Russia weren’t impressive in their last match, whereas Russia showed signs that they could qualify against a good Spain team.  Once again Russia will miss their best player Arshavin through suspension, lets hope it won’t be too late for Russia when he does finally play.  Out of 13 competitive games, Russia have beaten Greece 9 times, with Greece only winning 3 times. 

Euro 2008 betting tip:Greece will be changing their formation to a more familiar one which they used at Euro 2004, so we should expect a major improvement from Greece.  Even so, I still think Russia have the potential to win this match and Hiddink will be looking to get qualification back on track against the Greeks.  Let’s back Russia to win at odds of 2.24 on Betfair.

UPDATE- A winning bet at odds of 2.2.4!!  Russia win the match by one goal and this sets up a tantalising game with Sweden. 

Sweden v Spain- Sweden have won 3 out of the 12 times they have met Spain, with Spain winning 5 games.  A good omen for Sweden is that they were the last team to beat Spain in a competitive match in 2006.  There’s no doubt that Spain were in sparkling form against Russia and they have proved that playing two strikers up front isn’t dead in international football.  Sweden also showed that playing football against negative tactics can win matches and gave them deserved 3 points.   

Euro 2008 betting tip:  Spain will cause alot of problems for the Swedish at the back with Villa and Torres, but Spain also do look vulnerable in their defence and if Sweden can keep up the intensity and pace they played in the last game, then they will create chances.  Something tells me to go against the Spanish in this one, but I’m unsure.  So lets go with a small bet on a Swedish win at odds of 6.8 on Betfair (go for the lay of Spain if you want to cover draws also at 1.68), also it’s hard not to back an on form striker to score, back Villa to score at anytime for Spain at 2.48.

UPDATE- Well in the end it was Spain the worthy winners with the scoreline 2-1 to them.  Although Sweden did give them a scare when they scored the leveller.  We lost the bet on backing Sweden to win the match, but luckily only a small bet was advised.   Hopefully any losses from that bet was covered by the bet on Villa to score at anytime, 2 out of three winning tips is not bad for a Saturday!!!

It’s the Group C  ‘Group of death’ games today and there’s no doubt that today we’ll see some great matches.  So far we’ve done pretty well with the winning bets (not so good with the fun bets though), hopefully the winning will continue.  If you’ve just joined us (where have you been?, I hope you haven’t been watching Big Brother!!), make sure to sign up to Betfair to put your bets on and you will get a FREE £25 Bet offer.  See the link or check out the banners.

Holland v France- Well it’s the tale of two contrasting performances, Holland played some great football, scoring a fantastic 2nd goal and France were just poor all over the pitch, not really threatening up front.  The two teams have played 21 times, with 9 wins for the Dutch and the French winning 8 times.  Luckily for the Dutch this match can’t go to penalties as France knocked them out in Euro ‘96.  If France play like they played in their first game then they will have no chance, surely this game will bring out a big performance from the French players? 

Euro 2008 betting tip- We shouldn’t be underestimating the French in this match, we saw how they got their act together at the World Cup after a terrible start, but without a world class player like Zidane they may find it tough.  It won’t be an easy game for the Dutch and unlike teams like Romania, they won’t be defending most of the match to keep a clean sheet.   I will still be backing the Dutch to win this match at odds of 2.8 on Betfair, but as the current odds suggest, it is going to be a very close match.

UPDATE: 4-1 what a game!!! This has to be the game of the tournament so far, the Dutch were on killer form today and if the French had put away their chances then the score line could of reached double figures.  Thankfully this game won us our bet and should of covered any losses from the Italy match. 

Italy v Romania- It’s all at stake for the world champions today, they have to win to stand a chance of qualifying.  Romania will look to frustrate just like they did against France.  Italy looked like they were missing the creativity in midfield, if only they had Totti pulling the strings.  From past games, it doesn’t look too good for Romania, out of 14 games Italy have beaten them 10 times.   In Euro 2008 Italy won 2-0 against the Romanians in the quarter finals.

Euro 2008 betting tip-   Romania are at massive odds of 7.0 on Betfair to beat Italy.  Italy have to win this match to have a chance at qualifying.  I know that ‘having’/'needing’ to win is very different to winning a game and although Italy are missing creativity  in midfield I will be backing them at odds of 1.7 to beat Romania today.  Also I’m going for a small fun bet on Luca Toni to score at anytime at odds of 2.42.  See Betfair.

UPDATE:  Losing bet, Italy rode their luck at the end with the saved penalty and could of been out of Euro 2008.  In the end the 1-1 draw lost us our bet of backing Italy to win this game.  As I said before having to win a game doesn’t mean you will win the game, maybe I should take my own advice next time!!