Spain Favourites to Reign Once More in the Euro Under 21s

The European Under 21 Championship gets underway this Wednesday from Israel and for the first time in living memory James Milner is not a part of the England side. For Milner and everyone else watching from home here is our guide to the best of the bets from the tournament.

Bookmakers think five teams can win this tournament (Spain, Germany, Italy, England and the Netherlands) and three (Russia, Israel, Norway) are just making up the numbers. Spain are the 2/1 (GENERAL) favourites ahead of their group rivals Germany who are 9/2 (CORAL/william hill), England are 6/1 (GENERAL), Italy are 13/2 (CORAL) and the Netherlands 15/2 (ladbrokes).

Three of these five sides are in Group B along with Russia who are no mugs. Spain are the 5/4 (SKYBET/BWIN/betway) favourites to win the group ahead of Germany 12/5 (Coral), the Netherlands at 7/2 (GENERAL) and the Russians at 16/1 (william hill). This is a talented Spanish side who are filled with a number of quality players including Thiago, Isco, De Gea and Iker Muniain. The price though does not inspire a bet with this group looking tough and memories of the Spanish disaster in the Olympics still fresh. Throw into the mix that this German side was unbeaten in their ten qualifiers, the Dutch have 12 players in their side who already have international caps and Russia will have perhaps the best player in the tournament in Alan Dzagoev.

Instead then take a look at the teams in Group A most notably Italy who despite being favourites to win the Group are actually a bigger price than England to win the tournament.

Italy are the most successful side in the history of the competition winning five of the 18 previous runnings of this tournament though they have not won since 2004. This is a strong crop of Italian youngsters with Liverpool forward Fabio Borini the most known name to English football fans. The big players are full internationals Marco Veratti (expected to take over from Pirlo as playmaker for the national side) and Mattia Destro (the Roma striker scored in a qualifier for the World Cup against Malta).

England should have also qualify easy and have too much for Norway and Israel in the groups though I can not see them seeing off Spain, Germany or the Netherlands in the semi-finals. The advice then is to take the 6/5 (BETVICTOR) on them getting eliminated in the last four.

The top goalscorer market in this tournament is headed by Spanish striker Rodrigo who netted eleven goals in qualifying. Mattia Destro is a 10/1 (BETVICTOR/CORAL) chance while Luuk De Jong is a 12/1 (GENERAL) chance. The Italians could be the team to side with as they have games against weaker sides in Israel and Norway so keep an eye on how the Italians line up in their opener against England to get an idea on which player to back.

One bet I like the look of is Top England Goalscorer market with Craig Dawson likely be on penalties the 16/1 with BETVICTOR looks value as the firm are paying EW the top two at a third the odds.

BEST OF THE BETS

GOLD: Italy to win the European Under21 Championships, 13/2 (CORAL)
SILVER: England stage of elimination, semi final, 6/5 (BETVICTOR)
BRONZE: Craig Dawson, EW top England goalscorer, 16/1 (BETVICTOR)

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03/06/2013     © Frixo 2026