Football Betting Basics

For Advanced Bettors

Football Betting Tools

My Journey to Professional Football-Betting
Observations and thoughts of a pre-professional football bettor with occassional comments by J Armstrong. Updated at least once weekly.

by Daniel Andersson

Date: 27 May 2008

Euro 2008 Preview - Who's Gonna Win Which Group?

Hi J

The Euro's is coming around the corner and it will surely be a very interesting tournament with many great teams and players. After a brief look on the groups and who will eachother in the quarters I think that the winner of group B will at least reach a semi-final spot and very likely a medal.

That team will either be Croatia or Germany and I am actually leaning towards Croatia in that battle. The reason for the winner of that group should have an "easy" time reaching the semis is that in Group A Portugal should stroll to first place but the second place is wide open and a fight between evenly matched and 'not that great' teams.

Even though the Czech Republic is considered good they come in o the tournament with injury problems and the most noteable injury is that of their key player Rosicky.

Then there is Turkey and Switzerland. Turkey who doesn't at all hold the same quality as a few years ago and the home nation Switzerland may be physically strong but they are not a semi-final team allthough I consider them to have a equal chance to reach the quarters as Turkey and Czech Republic.

Group B should as said, be a fight between Croatia and Germany and the first place is very important in this group considering the composition of group A. You want to avoid Portugal at any cost.

But then in Group C we have a real hornets nest. A group with Italy, France, Holland and Romania is really the, for the lack of a better term, group of death. The only team I would place any money on to go through here is Italy and that is because of their tactical knowledge and routine.

The Netherlands is very unpredictable and was very up and down in the qualification games.

France has a whole lot of A-players but they never seem to work in the national team.

Romania is a team that could be the underdog that succeeds in this tournament. They have a very technical style of play and could suprise many teams. But the group may just be a bit to tough for them. If they would have ended up in a easier group they could very well have reached the finals because in the knock-outs it is alot up to lady luck.

Group D incorporates another favourite and one possible surprise in Spain and Russia. Spain once again come into a tournament as one of the favourites but this time it may be time for them to live up to the expectations. They have a great team and not just individually but a team that works together. Every part of the team is world class all the way from Casillas up to Villa and Torres. This might just be their year.

Russia which I think will be team number two in this group still seem to be undervalued or maybe that is just by the "experts" in my country. Russia is a good team and they have a fast style of game that, just like Romania, can surprise in this European Championships. With Spain and Russia in the top two positions they leave Sweden and Greece to go home.

This was just some short thoughts and I will try to come with several articles about the EC and the teams in it.

Thanks for reading.

Daniel

Click Here to Become a Member of The Silver Circle.

1. Receive J Armstrong's personal picks through both email and SMS.
2. Direct access to J Armstrong though email.
3. Access to Members' Area and support.
4. Access to protected information reserved only for members.