Euro 2008/Int Friendlies 22 & 23 Aug

Today’s fixtures are dominated by one sided Euro 2008 qualifiers and international friendlies, both of which are usually poor fare for Asian handicap bettors.



Of the Euro 2008 qualifiers only Belgium vs Serbia is remotely competitive and that is a hard game to read, mainly because Belgium almost certainly have missed qualification and are likely to experiment with their side. That would normally make Serbia a good value bet as they are the only side with a strong incentive to get a result but unfortunately the Serbians are poor travellers and, more importantly, Belgium have a good crop of young players coming through who will give them a good run for their money. The Belgians played exceedingly well in the European U21 championships and with five of that side likely to start you would probably have to side with the home side were you to have a bet here.



International friendlies are poor punting mediums because you never know how much sides actually care about the result and managers are liable to pull off half the most important players after 60 minutes to appease their club side managers. Fixture of the night is England vs Germany but it is hard to bet on the game because the Germans have almost no midfield while England will rely on an attack partnership that hasn’t even properly settled at club level (Newcastle), let alone on the international stage. There may be a long standing rivalry between these two countries but I think neither manager really cares that much about tonight’s results with England probably likely to put in marginally more effort than the visitors. At the prices I would back England but there is no value in it.



The only value of the bet tonight looks to be Romania, who can be back at 2.00 (-½) at home to Turkey. Romania have not lost at home since March 2005 and are now 13th in the FIFA rankings yet they do not get the respect they reserve from the bookies. They are a well organised side that tops Group G for the Euro 2008 qualifiers and they face a Turkey side that are poor travellers and often do not care about these friendly games. A one point bet on Romania at 2.00 (-½) is the call.

[Romania won 2-0]