Austria
W
The
es
Dark Hors
Poland
L
ead by Robert
Lewandowski, the
man firing on all cylinders
for Bayern Munich this
season, Poland might be
a few punters’ outside
shot to win Euro 2016.
Despite being pipped to
top spot by Germany in
their qualifying group,
Poland won over a fair few
neutrals with their open,
attacking style of play,
finishing qualifying as the
highest scoring nation of
all. Lewandowski could
be the subject of some
bets himself, given that he
finished top of the scoring
charts in qualifying, but
Poland cannot afford to be
reliant on just him if they
have aspirations of going
far in France.
Portugal
P
ortugal have
performed fairly well
given their stature in past
European Championships.
They’ve reached the
quarter finals twice,
finished 3rd three times
and 2nd once but have
never won the competition.
This year, they’ll be aiming
to do exactly that, but a
semi-final appearance
would resemble a good
tournament for the
nation. Like many of the
other sides at this year’s
tournament, there will be
a youthful presence in the
team, made up of Bernardo
Silva, William Carvalho,
Rafa, André Gomes and
Renato Sanches, but, to
the displeasure of many
Portuguese nationals, there
are a fair few older names
too. Ronaldo is expected
to lead the line, so you can
expect Portugal to score
goals at the very least.
hen Greece won
the European
Championships in 2004
they went down as the
greatest surprise in the
competitions history,
nobody expected them
to reach so far as the
quarter-finals, let alone
conquer Europe. This
year, if anyone is going to
truly upset the applecart,
we believe that team will
be Austria. Having only
qualified once previously,
in the year they were given
automatic qualification as
hosts, the Austrians are not
too familiar with this level
of competition. However,
Marcel Koller’s side went
unbeaten in qualifying,
overcoming the likes of
Russia and Sweden to top
Group G. There are few
stars in this side, barring
Bayern Munich’s David
Alaba, but they are an
extremely strong unit as a
team, something evidenced
by them conceding just
5 goals in qualifying and
having a total of 7 different
goal scorers in 10 games.
They might just be worth
keeping an eye on this year.
Keep up to date with all the action of Euro 2016 thanks to
our pull-out wall chart on pages 22-23!
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