You could cut the tension with a cheese knife. Wales and England head to head. A win for the Welsh and not only have they left England’s Euro 2016 campaign on a knife edge, they’ve also got the important bragging rights over the Severn Bridge! Take that England! If England win, then pray for the sheep of the valleys on Thursday night.
But to help with the start of round two of our Hotshot Jackpot we’ve scoured the odds again to guide you to who we think is best value in the anytime goalscorer market for the three Thursday games.
Gareth Bale, England vs Wales, 2pm kick off.
These days it’s about as inevitable as 40 year old Barry from Winchester getting on the news with his top off. If Wales are to win, Gareth Bale will have to score. It was true against Slovakia when (with the help of some awful goalkeeping) the Real Madrid star sent the Welsh on their way to three points with a free kick.
If,as we’re guessing, Roy Hodgson sticks with the same defence then we’re saying Bale will score. England’s back four made just four tackles between them in the Russia game. Danny Rose was let get forward, touching the ball 79 times – only Eric Dier and a Russian defender made more.
Russia weren’t able to punish Rose when he did go out of position. Wales are. They were deadly on the counter against Slovakia, with Bale leading the charge through the middle, taking five of the eight Welsh shots. His odds of are too tempting for us not to tip.
Kyle Lafferty, Ukraine vs Northern Ireland, 5pm kick off
Northern Ireland were not very good against Poland. They took two shots. Two shots that were off target. Only one of which was from open play. They seemed to be set up for the 0-0 draw but were undone by some sweet Polish Milik.
Now, they can’t afford to set up for the draw because they’ll likely be eliminated if they do. Michael O’Neill’s hand is being forced. Not literally, because that’s a mean thing to do to someone. You know what we mean.
Kyle Lafferty was forced to come deep by the Polish. He had the sole Northern Irish shot from open play
Ukraine were stifled by Germany, only having one shot inside the box all game, which was missed.
It’s going to be tight. Lafferty was O’Neill’s star in qualifying, scoring seven times in nine games. He won’t get a better opportunity to shine for his country than this game. He should get a bit more space in this game so look at his odds of to score anytime.
Arkadiusz Milik, Germany vs Poland, 8pm kick off
Paddy you muppet, we hear you cry. Why haven’t you gone for Thomas Muller or Mesut Ozil or one of the disturbingly handsome Germans to score?!
Well that’s quite simple really. We know the Germans are probably going to score. But trying to choose an anytime scorer is harder than trying to choose what takeaway we’re going to reward ourselves with after a solid 30 minutes of exercise. So we plumped for the Poles and for a man that’s already scored at the tournament in Arkadiusz Milik at.
Despite Robert Lewandowski being the obvious target, it was Milik who had the most shots for the Poles against Northern Ireland. In fact, he trumped the Bayern man in almost all areas. The only one where Lewandowski had a higher stat was loss of possession.
They met in qualifying, and Poland beat the World Cup winners in Warsaw. Milik was clinical – one shot, one goal and a 100% take on rate. If the Germans have learned their lesson, they’ll put more pressure on him, but that presents the danger of leaving the Bundesliga’s top scorer with space on the other side of the attack. Catch 22, or Fang Zweiundzwanzig for the ball scratching Joachim Low.
- Throw all of them together and you get a lovely 55/1 treble. That’ll be enough for a few plastic chairs.
- Our full Euro 2016 match odds are right here.