Euro U21 final: England’s Young Lions bidding for glory against Spain
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England U21 v Spain U21 betting tips, preview and odds
England U21s are appearing in their first European Championship final in 14 years after beating their Israel counterparts 3-0 in Georgia on Wednesday night.
Awaiting them in Saturday’s final are five-time champions Spain, who fought back from a goal down to beat Ukraine 5-1 in Bucharest a couple of hours later.
The layers find the teams hard to split, so let’s look at some of the markets to aid our England U21 v Spain U21 betting tips.
Young Lions keeping it clean
Lee Carsley’s youngsters are the narrowest of favourites at 5/6 to win the tournament for the first time since 1984 or 8/5 to do so inside 90 minutes and the way they have gone about their business, few would argue against their prospects.
The Young Lions won all of their group games 2-0 against the Czech Republic, Israel and Germany which they followed with 1-0 and 3-0 victories over Portugal and the Israelis again in the knockout stage, so they have yet to concede at the tournament.
Spain made wholesale changes for their final group game against Ukraine with a place in the knockout phase assured, but still finished top of the group despite a 2-2 draw.
Santi Denia’s side needed extra time to see off Switzerland 2-1 in the quarter-finals and eased into the final in style with their major players restored to the starting line-up against Ukraine.
🏴🆚🇪🇸 The final is set!
Saturday 8 July, 18:00 CET ⌛
Batumi Arena 🇬🇪#U21EURO pic.twitter.com/lITQGVWf19— #U21EURO (@UEFAUnder21) July 5, 2023
England’s squad is packed full of recognisable players with Premier League experience such as Curtis Jones, Emile Smith Rowe, Cole Palmer, Morgan Gibbs-White and Anthony Gordon, while Carsley was able to call upon Cameron Archer and Harvey Elliott from off the bench on Wednesday, so it’s clear this team is packed with quality just like Spain’s.
Manchester City’s Sergio Gomez and Braga’s Abel Ruiz, Spain U21s’ skipper, are the joint top scorers in the competition with three goals apiece.
Spain are also the most prolific team in the tournament with 12 goals and although England’s defence has been rock solid so far, they will do well to keep their opponents at bay.
With that in mind, both teams to score and over 2.5 goals at 5/4 is the first of our England U21 v Spain U21 betting tips.
Keep Georgia in mind for goals
England have scored in the first half in all but one of their five games at the European U21 Championship and there were goals at both ends before the break in Spain’s heavy win against Ukraine.
It doesn’t necessarily follow that the final in Batumi will be a goal fest just because these are the most prolific teams in the tournament, but these are two attack-minded sides and hopefully we should see plenty of goalmouth action.
If that’s the case it may be worth considering both teams to score in the first half at 15/4 as the next of Saturday’s England U21 v Spain U21 betting tips.
For those looking at much bigger prices, both teams to score in both halves and either team to win at 18/1 is plausible, while backing Smith Rowe to score any time at 10/3 may also pay dividends.
The Arsenal attacker has two goals to his name and against Israel on Wednesday he had a shot cleared off the line and hit the post seconds later, so he’s champing at the bit to get on the scoresheet.
Match Info
Where: Adjarabet Stadium, Batumi
When: 17:00, Saturday 8th July
How to watch: UEFA website and Channel 4
All odds and markets correct as of date of publication
