TFT Issue 135!
FreeHowdy guys and girls!
UEFA European U21 Championship Today
Switzerland vs Iceland
I think there’s been a bit of a market overreaction to Switzerland’s win against Denmark. I was impressed with the Swiss – don’t get me wrong – but they’re not worth evens here. There’s some good players in the ascension for Switzerland here – Emegheara and Shaqiri are both very dangerous in attack – but they’re not world-beaters. For me, this is the game in the group between the two top sides and I think that we’ll see a good, open game. You see, Iceland provide a much more potent threat than Denmark’s sporadic attacks did despite their 0-2 defeat against Belarus indicating that that simply isn’t the case. What you have to bear in mind is that Belarus sat behind the ball against Iceland and although it worked in the first-half, Iceland tore them apart second-half but were unlucky not to take their chances. I expect Switzerland to attack Iceland here and I think Iceland will be much more dangerous from the start than they were against Belarus; those opening day nerves are gone and now they need points. Both of these sides are capable of scoring goals and I wouldn’t want to pick a winner here, based on what we’ve seen so far. However, we shouldn’t be able to lay Switzerland here for 4/5 – those odds are too generous so I have to go with that one today as Iceland are a damn good attacking side and their 0-2 defeat against Belarus showed very little of how the game was actually played. Therefore, my call is to lay Switzerland today.
Lay Switzerland at 4/5.
Denmark vs Belarus
This one is considerably bolder given that Denmark are the hosts but I simply don’t rate them as an attacking side. They created a few good chances against Switzerland in their opening game but for all their effort and tenacity, they actually produced very little. Bille is a really good striker – if they give him the service he needs then I’m confident he will score. The trouble is that most of that creativity comes from Eriksen and I suspect Belarus will simply 4-5-1 against Denmark to stifle him and that will limit Denmark’s chances severely. Belarus themselves don’t have much in attack but the likes of Dragun and Rekish (who must surely start in this game!) should be a threat on counter-attacks. Belarus defended very well in the first-half of their last match against Iceland. Iceland have more going forward than Denmark, though, so I doubt Denmark can emulate their former colony’s attacking prowess that was indicated in the second-half of that game. For me, Belarus will get something from this game because Denmark aren’t great at creating chances. My concern is that if they fall behind then they may well be out of the game but at generous odds of 6/5, I feel it’s worth a flutter – Denmark are nowhere near as good as people seem to think that they are.
Lay Denmark at 6/5.