Euro 2008 Betting Preview

Football Betting was turned upsidedown in 2004 when Greece lifted the trophy but can the Greek heroes do it all again in 2008?

Greece arrived at the European Championships four years ago as 150/1 outsiders – an Angelos Charisteas goal saw them sink hosts Portugal in the final and pull off the greatest sports betting underdog victory in international football since Uruguay broke Brazilian hearts in the 1950 World Cup Final.

Greece remain a long price to retain their Championship, but coach Otto Rehhagal is still in situ and Greece topped their qualifying group with only one defeat on their record – away to Turkey in March of last year.

Despite the heroics of the long haired Greeks last year, the traditional football powers of Germany, Italy, France and Spain are the ante-post favorites for this summer’s tournament, jointly hosted by Austria and Switzerland. Germany’s slump is now over, and the most consistent football nation in the world has built on their recent World Cup form, easily winning their qualifying group. World Cup winners Italy and runners-up France are here also, but wretched luck has sent them to a group of death where only one of Italy, France and Holland can qualify. The pressure will be on as soon as they get off the airplane.

And what of Spain, the greatest under-achievers in world football? Spain’s most recent success in international football was in the eighties, when the team of Emilio Butragueño and Andoni Goikoetxea lost the Euro 84 final to Michel Platini’s France. Since then it’s been disappointment and heartbreak, as the team fails to measure up to the sum of its parts.

Perhaps the greatest motivation for the Spain this year is fear – not of losing, but of neighbours Portugal winning it all. Portugal got to the European Championships Final four years ago, and to the World Cup semi-finals in 2006, and they potentially have the greatest player in the world today in Cristiano Ronaldo. Could fear of being shown up by Portugal be the missing ingredient to finally goad Spain on to Euro 2008 glory?