Euro 2008 has nearly reached its conclusion and on Sunday night the 13th European Football Champions will be crowned in Vienna. There have been some fantastic games at this year’s tournament and at the time of writing either Spain or Russia will be taking on Germany in the final. Sellers of total goals at 2 will be slightly worried after Germany’s thrilling 3-2 semi-final win against the Turks made it two five-goal games in a row for Joachim Low’s side. They will also be concerned that only one final (Euro 2004 between Greece and Portugal) has had one solitary goal and there has never been a goal-less final in the 12 tournaments. Interestingly for goals punters; prior to the last competition in Portugal, the previous five finals had seen exactly two goals in regular time (three were settled with 2-0 victories, whilst two had to go to extra-time after 1-1 draws).

Germany could be bought at 50 with Sporting Index pre-tournament in their 100 index (where they award 100 points to the winner, 75 to the runner-up, 50 to each losing semi-finalist, 25 points to all losing quarter-finalists and 0 for failing to qualify), so a number of punters are sitting in a healthy position going into Sunday’s final. The Germans have the strongest record in the tournament, having won three and finishing runner-up twice. Buyers of German supremacy in this game will have to wait for Thursday’s night’s result, but they will be interested to learn that in four meetings against the Russians, Germany have won three and drawn one. This is in addition to an 8-2 win ratio for West Germany over the USSR. However, the last time Spain faced the pre-tournament favourites they won 3-1 in 2003.

Finals can often be tight, nervous affairs and buyers of the time of the first match goal will take great heart from the last three European finals going in goal-less at the break. In fact, only three of the last 14 goals scored within 90 minutes in finals have been scored in the first half. Two of the last three finals have gone to extra-time and were won before penalties, which will be of interest to extra-time punters – especially as the extra 30 minutes was needed in three of the four quarter finals this year.

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