Euro 2016 Soccer Odds: France Favourite Before Round of 16

Ricky Rothstein
June 23, 2016

Euro 2016 host country France was the betting favourite on Sports Interaction’s soccer odds when the tournament began and remains atop the board at +400.

Euro 2016 Outright Odds

The top two teams in each of the six groups automatically qualified for the Round of 16 in Euro 2016 and they were joined by the four best third-place teams — Slovakia, Republic of Ireland, Portugal and Northern Ireland.

France won Group A with seven points, beating Romania and Albania and then tying with Switzerland. In the knockout round, the French play the Republic of Ireland on Sunday. Those countries haven’t met in a meaningful match since 2009 in World Cup qualifying. The Irish finished third in Group E with four points. They upset group winner Italy 1-0 on Wednesday. The French will play the winner of Monday’s match between England and Iceland in the quarterfinals. Les Bleus last won this tournament in 2000. A France-England matchup would be epic.

Reigning World Cup champion Germany’s Euro 2016 odds are at +475. The Germans finished atop Group C with seven points. They face Group B third-place team Slovakia on Sunday for a trip to the quarterfinals against the winner of Monday’s matchup between Italy and Spain, which is the two-time defending champion of this event. That match is easily the marquee one of the Round of 16; Spain routed Italy 4-0 in the 2012 final in Kiev.Spain’s late defeat to Croatia on Tuesday handed Croatia Group D and pushed Spain to second place, into that tough Italy match and in the same half of the bracket with fellow powerhouses Germany, France and England. We’ll call that the “Bracket of Death.” Those teams have combined for nine previous Euro titles, as well as 11 World Cups. Spain is +575 to win the tournament. Spain’s Alvaro Morata and Wales’ Gareth Bale are the Golden Boot leaders for most goals in the event with three each.

Belgium is next on the soccer odds at +600. It was the second-place team in Group E behind Italy but got the easier better road to the final. Belgium faces Hungary on Sunday and the winner gets either Wales or Northern Ireland. Croatia is +750 to win the tournament and may be on course for a semifinal match with Belgium. Croatia faces superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal on Saturday, with the winner taking on either Switzerland or Poland in the quarterfinals.

Ronaldo finally broke out in this year’s tournament with two goals and an assist in a wild 3-3 tie with Hungary on Wednesday to get Portugal through to the next round. Ronaldo became the first player ever to score in four different European Championships and passed Nuno Gomes for most Euro goals in Portuguese history (eight) in scoring his 59th and 60th goals for his country. The all-time European Championship career record is nine goals by France’s Michel Platini. Portugal is +1100 to win the tournament for the first time.

The tournament long shot is Northern Ireland at +24900.