Lacklustre showing sees Spain drift in tournament winner market
Published:It took a late Jesus Navas winner for Spain to beat Croatia on Monday, with the defending champions’ performance in that match seeing them drift to 9/4 to win Euro 2012.
Indeed, Spain haven’t been as impressive as many expected in Poland and Ukraine, even in spite of them progressing to the quarter-final by winning Group C.
There are question marks regarding Vicente del Bosque’s favoured formation, with the Spanish boss lining up without a striker initially, before restoring Fernando Torres for the last two games.
With Cesc Fabregas increasingly influential from the bench though, Del Bosque may be tempted to recall the Barcelona man to his first 11, and again revert to a 4-6-0 formation.
A last eight clash with one of France, England, or Ukraine awaits the current World and European champions, though on their recent form, they certainly appear beatable.
This has been demonstrated in the market for outright tournament winner, where Germany are now 21/10 favourites, after winning all three of their group games en route to the quarter-final.
Punters also looking for deterring reasons to back a Spanish tournament win, should be interested in the fact that potential opponents England came out on top in the last meeting of the sides, less than a year ago.
Even were Spain to advance past the quarter-finals, they would likely meet Portugal in the semi-final of the tournament, a side with a superb recent record against them.
Paulo Bento’s men have come out on top in two of the last three encounters between the nations, and with their last victory over the Spanish being an emphatic 4-0 success, they would hold no fears against the defending champions should they meet.
All things considered, it seems understandable that Spain are losing support to win Euro 2012, and with other sides looking more impressive in the tournament so far, they could be worth avoiding at 9/4 to land consecutive European crowns.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
