Stuart Pearce leads his under21 team into the final of the European Championships tonight against old rivals Germany minus three key players. Goalkeeper Joe Hart plus strikers Gabriel Agbonlahor and Fraizer Campbell will all miss the game through suspension but despite that drawback we’re taking them to win tonight.
England reached the final by beating Sweden on penalties after they let a 3-0 half time lead slip away. Germany beat the more fancied Italians 1-0 after being outplayed for most of the match to reach the final and of the two teams it has been England who have been the more impressive team, even if they have looked a bit vulnerable in defence.
The last three finals have all been won by a margin of three goals and you can get odds of 18/1 (Bluesq) on England winning by 3 goals and 28/1 (Ladbrokes) about Germany winning by a 3 goal margin. With Germany being pretty mean defensively and not scoring many goals it’s hard to see them winning by three goals unless England have a catastrophic night. With England missing their main strikers they also look unlikely to win by a three goal margin, although if Theo Walcott plays as the main striker his pace could trouble the German defence and anything is possible.
England have a good record against Germany at this level only losing once in nine previous meetings. In the group stages the teams drew 1-1, but England fielded an under strength team that night and may feel they have the beating of the Germans. England are 6/4 (William Hill) to win tonight and we feel that could be decent value.
England have scored before half time in three of their four games and taking them to score first at Evens (Stan James) could be worth a bet. The half time full time result of England /England is 3/1 (Paddypower) and is another bet we will be having a small stake on.
The only goal Germany have conceded was against England and while they have looked pretty assured defensively most of the time, they have had a fair bit of luck and if that deserts them England could take advantage. At odds of 2/1 (Betfred) Germany will have plenty of supporters especially as their Under 19’s and Under 17 teams have both won major tournaments recently.
We can’t see either side running away with this and think it will be close, but we are tipping England to win narrowly. The over 2.5 goals at 7/5 (Bet365) is a bet worth thinking about and along with a 2-1 correct score bet 9/1 (Bluesq) are the two bets we’ll be having tonight.
Theo Walcott 15/2 (Sportingbet) and James Milner 9/1 (Totesport) look the two players most likely to grab the first goal with Walcott just getting our vote.
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