Young Lions 6/5 to end Swede dreams
It’s rare to see England installed as outright favourites to win any sporting event unless you’re taking about darts or snooker, although the bookmakers aren’t prepared to lay the Young Lions any bigger than 8/5 (Stan James) to land the 2009 European Under-21 Championship. Stuart Pearce’s team qualified after winning both of their opening group matches, giving them the rare luxury of being able to field a weakened team for Monday’s match against Germany. With key players rested and plenty of patriotic sentiment around, it’s entirely possible that the 6/5 (bet365) about them beating Sweden won’t be around when the teams kick off on Friday.
Nevertheless, this is unlikely to be a walk in the park for England’s young guns, who face a Sweden team who are very impressive going forward. A 5-1 victory over Belarus and a 3-1 win over Serbia illustrated that they are full of goals and many might be persuaded to take a punt on the hosts at mammoth odds of 14/5 (Coral). They’re sure to have a passionate home crowd supporting them in Gothenburg and in Marcus Berg, they have the tournament’s top goalscorer to date. The striker managed four goals in the group stages and is 15/2 (Paddy Power) to open the scoring. He’s also an 11/5 chance (Coral) to score at any stage of the match.
For the home side, there are a raft of attacking players that might be selected, with a question mark over Gabriel Agbonlahor (13/2 Blue Square) who hasn’t scored in the tournament so far. Fraizer Campbell (13/2 totesport) might be a better option for England, while it remains to be seen whether Theo Walcott (8/1 Blue Square) will be selected after missing out during the team’s 2-0 win over Spain. Aston Villa’s James Milner opened the scoring against the Spanish and he’s 8/1 (Boylesports) to break the deadlock once again.
Indeed, it could easily be a high-scoring affair at the Gamla Ullevi Stadium, with bet365 offering 7/2 that there are four goals or more scored. This has happened in two of Sweden’s three matches to date, while their 2-1 defeat against Italy could easily have resulted in more goals. Totesport offer 9/1 if you want to back one of the teams to win on penalties, while Berg is 125/1 (Paddy Power) to amazingly manage another hat-trick in the tournament. Walcott is 100/1 (Blue Square) to score three goals, as he did for the senior team against Croatia last autumn.