Euro 2016: Muller, Keane and Bendtner lead tasty five-fold
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The international break may seem like an inconvenience to those who would rather shuffle their Fantasy Football teams and shout at the Match of the Day pundits on a Saturday night but the latest instalment of Euro 2016 qualifying has thrown up plenty of intriguing encounters and tempting betting opportunities.
England fans might struggle to summon enthusiasm for the Three Lions’ visit to San Marino – even if Wayne Rooney surpasses the great Bobby Charlton as all-time top scorer – but the other Home Nations could offer more excitement.
Wales have already got the ball rolling with a 1-0 win over Cyprus, and this five-fold, paying out at 93/1, shows how the others can follow that up, with a little help from Germany and Denmark.
Germany have lost just one of their last 30 home Euro qualifiers and while Poland themselves are unbeaten in 10 games the visitors were held to a goalless draw at home by Greece last time out.
As such the hosts are priced as the firm 1/3 favourites but there is better value in backing Thomas Muller to score at any time.
The striker may have his just one goal in his last five internationals but he is a different beast at home in Euro Qualifiers, where he has struck six times in as many games.
Add in that he has smashed five goals in his opening three games for Bayern Munich this season and the 21/20 on him betting against the Poles looks like free money.
For all the talk of a much improved Faroe Islands of late the hosts have still won just three of their last 37 qualifiers, while Norn Iron have beaten the likes of Greece and Hungary on the road in this campaign.
The visitors are odds-on but with eight of the Faroes’ last 11 defeats coming by two or more goals the 2/1 on the Green and White Army overcoming the -1 handicap should tempt.
With the Emerald Isle 1/66 to beat Europe’s new whipping boys attention should turn to the talismanic Keane, who has 65 goals in his 140-game international career.
The former Wolves, Coventry, Inter, Leeds, Milan, Tottenham and Liverpool man may be plying his trade in MLS these days but 15 goals in 16 games this season for LA Galaxy show he is still bang on form and looks great value to open the scoring as he did in Dublin at 9/4.
To find Gordon Strachan’s men at odds-against is a treat given the form of both sides. Georgia have lost five consecutive qualifiers in front of their own fans, while Scotland are unbeaten five home and away.
The only teams to have beaten the Scots in this competition since December 201 are Spain and Germany, so Georgia should offer little resistance.
Lord Bendtner has drawn three consecutive international blanks since firing a hat-trick past USA in March this year but the former Arsenal man is in solid form for Wolfsburg.
The 27-year-old has netted three goals in five games this season and with Albania keeping just two clean sheets in eight away qualifiers he’ll be confident of striking here.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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