Euro Betting – England Open Tourney vs Russia
Russia (+350) vs England (-115), Draw (+240)
Sky-high expectations accompany England into Euro 2016. The Three Lions’ young, revamped roster will kick off the tournament with arguably its toughest matchup of the group stage, facing a game Russia on Saturday at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille (3:00 PM Eastern).
Expectations are high largely because England were able to roll through qualification a perfect 10-0-0, outscoring opponents 31-3. Only Poland scored more goals (33), and only Romania allowed fewer (2).
They carried that excellent form through the pre-tournament friendlies, even coming from 2-0 down to beat world champion Germany 3-2 in a thriller back in March.
England have never won the Euro. In fact, they’ve never even reached the semis. Anything less than a final-four appearance is going to be viewed as a massive disappointment this time around, though. They sit at 9/1 to win the tourney, which is fourth in the odds, behind France, Germany, and Spain.
Russia are a dangerous squad, but likely don’t have the experience to make a deep run. They’re bringing a very young team to the tournament with a view to the 2018 World Cup, which they’ll host. They finished second to Austria in the qualification group, but still made the field with relative ease, picking up 20 points in ten matches and posting a 21-5 goal difference.
Russia are currently 66/1 longshots to win it all. They do have a better Euro track record than England, though, reaching the semi-finals back in 2008 before losing to eventual champion Spain.
England and Russia haven’t met since 2007 when they clashed in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. They split their qualification games with each team holding serve at home. With tomorrow’s game at a neutral site, England should be able to dominate the pace and get the full three. Anything less is going to be a huge disappointment.
Pick: England (-115).
(Photo Credit: enviro warrior (Harry Kane), CC BY-SA 2.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.)
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
