France overcome Irish but lose favouritism
FRANCE have lost outright Euro 2016 favouritism to Germany and are 9-2 to win Euro 2016 after the hosts recovered from a scare against Ireland to book their place in the quarter-finals which could potentially produce a last-eight date against England.
First things first and the Three Lions must deal with Iceland but France can watch events in Nice content with their second-half comeback to earn a 2-1 victory and end Ireland’s campaign.
Robbie Brady’s early penalty boosted Irish hopes of a massive upset but France came roaring back after a poor opening period and Antoine Griezmann’s second-half brace put Les Bleus safely into the quarter-finals.
Griezmann is 6-1 to finish as the tournament’s top goalscorer as he took his tournament tally to three which is the joint-best effort.
Coral’s head of football Nick Goff said he expects France would be around 8-15 favourites to qualify for the semi-finals with England estimated at 6-4.
Roy Hodgson’s side are 2-9 favourites to progress past Iceland with the tournament debutants 4-1 to stun the Three Lions and almost certainly end the tenure of the manager in the process.
Hills are 6-1 that Hodgson is no longer England manager within 48 hours should they go out with the much-travelled boss out of contract this summer.
Hodgson is expected to recall Harry Kane for the contest and the misfiring Tottenham forward is 7-4 with bet365 and Sky Bet to notch in Nice to break his Euro 2016 duck.
Kane is 3-1 with bet365 to outscore Iceland on his own and BoyleSports and Hills make him 11-2 favourite to be named as Uefa’s man of the match.
Returning skipper Wayne Rooney is 6-1 with Paddy Power, while Daniel Sturridge is the same price with BoyleSports.
Swansea’s Gylfi Sigurdsson is the shortest-priced Icelandic player at 14-1 with bet365.
Bookmakers are quoting Germany at 15-4 to add the European Championship to their World Cup title following a 3-0 success over Slovakia.
Jerome Boateng opened the scoring and Mario Gomez added a second in a dominant German first-half performance despite Mesut Ozil’s seeing a penalty saved.
Gomez now has two goals at Euro 2016, scoring in both of his starts, and is 11-1 to claim the top goalscorer honours.
Julian Draxler completed the rout and Germany will meet either Spain or Italy in the quarter-finals with those two heavyweights meeting in the tie of the round at the Stade de France. La Roja are 8-15 favourites to progress.
Portugal are being quoted at 6-1 to win Euro 2016 following their dramatic 1-0 extra-time success over a highly-fancied Croatian outfit in Lens on Saturday.
A desperate regulation time – bet365 reported a cashback of £2m to punters thanks to their bore draw concession – came to life at the death as Ricardo Quaresma scored for Portugal to send them into a quarter-final tie against Poland.
Portugal are 4-7 to qualify for the semi-finals, while Poland are 11-8.