England U21 vs Germany U21
FreeToday’s featured game is the UEFA European U21 Championship final between England U21 and Germany U21. Both sides have been impressive and truly earned their respective pre-tournament “favourite” tags. The two sides met earlier on in the tournament in a fairly redundant encounter but there were certain things you coud pick up on from this game. For instance, England U21 rested a good number of their first team players and still managed to draw the game 1-1 with Germany U21. Whereas that doesn’t necessarily mean that England U21 are better than Germany U21, it does give an indication of more strength in depth, more options in both attack and defence which could prove key in this encounter. Unfortunately, quite a number of key players are missing from this game. For England U21, strikers Campbell and Agbonlahor miss the game through suspension, as does unfortunate goalkeeper Joe Hart, who was booked for the laughable “crime” of talking to the Sweden U21 team as they took penalties against him. Whereas I’ll agree it’s not sportsmanlike, there’s no rule in the game that says it can’t be done. Germany U21 are missing lethal striker Ashkan Dejagah, also through suspension. The U21 games are already generally rather compact encounters, let alone with both sides missing key attacking players. For that reason, taking under 2.5 goals looks worthwhile, although the odds are a shitty 1/2. To be honest, I’d even look at taking the under 1.5 goals card at 6/4 because Germany U21 aren’t big scorers to begin with – they’ve only scored more than one goal in a game once in their last eight games – and England U21 are missing attacking players so would probably take a 1-0 win, particularly to banish the memory of their horrendous defensive antics against Sweden U21 in the semi-finals that saw England U21 throw away a 3-0 lead. Aside from the above bets, the only other I like is taking England U21 to win in 90 minutes at 6/4 because they’re just better than their opponents today and they will treat this game with massive importance (aside from it being a final) because English players and fans have a very fierce rivalry with German fans/players for obvious reasons. Either way, I don’t think we’re going to witness a classic game here but there’s certainly some value in it.
Monday’s Picks
My tips:
England U21 vs Germany U21 – England U21 to win at 6/4, under 1.5 goals at 6/4 – see introduction for full details.
Staebek vs Brann Bergen – home win at 10/11. Reigning champions Staebek are beginning to find the form that won them the Tippeligaen last season, winning three of their last four games, the other game being a defeat away to league leaders Rosenborg. The ever-unpredictable Brann Bergen enter this game with two wins from their past four games but have only lost three out of eight away games this season, which emphasises their “tricky customer” status. Staebek have a decent home record with three wins, three draws and only one defeat at home this season. An important statistic to be aware of is that they are the third highest goalscorers in the league at home against a Brann Bergen defence that ships in more goals than most sides on the road. For the above reasons I’m going to call a narrow home win, particularly as Staebek won this fixture last season and have only lost once to Brann Bergen in their last three meetings, which included two trips to Brann Bergen. 10/11 looks a potential steal for this game.
As ever, any questions/explanations required, feel free to email me at thefootytipster@gmail.com. For the complete picks listing, see below!
UEFA European U21 Championship:
England U21 vs Germany U21 (7) 1-0
Icelandic Landsbankadeild Karla:
KR Reykjavik vs Breidablik Kopavogur (8) 2-0
Norwegian Tippeligaen:
Staebek vs Brann Bergen (7) 2-1
Singaporean S-League:
Super Reds vs Sengkang Punggol (8) 2-0
Enjoy your free betting tips!