The future does indeed look Orange

Spain are the 5/6 (bet365/paddy Power) favourites for the European Under 21 Championship as the tournament reaches the semi-final stage on Saturday and you can see why. The Spaniards are the only team to reach this stage with a 100% win record. La Roja are unbeaten in their last 24 games winning 21 of these. They have yet to concede a goal in the entire tournament. The route to the final looks good as well as they face the outsiders Norway who are as big as 16/1 (STAN JAMES/ladbrokes/188 BET) for the tournament. I do not think though the Spaniards represent the best value as I think the Netherlands do. True the Dutch have to get past Italy in the last four (who are 10/3-SKYBET/CORAL/SPREADEX for the tournament) and true they lost their last game 3-0 to Spain but they still need to be backed. The Dutch team rested all 11 first teamers for that game with Spain so nothing can be read into that. Look more into the first two games where they impressed in seeing off Russia and Germany. If you look at the first choice backline of this under21 side it could be argued that this could be as good as the first choice backline for the senior side. Thrown in a number of goalscorer options and it is clear this is a side with a lot of experience. Take the Dutch then to emerge victorious at the value price of 15/4 (BWIN/betway).

The first of the two semi-finals is the one that pits Spain against Norway and as you can imagine La Roja are the very strong favourites at 4/11 (GENERAL). This is not a shock as they have swept all three games in this tournament without conceding a single goal including a comprehensive 3-0 defeat of the Dutch last time out. Norway have also had a good group stage winning against England and drawing with Italy and Israel. Norway can be backed at 9/1 (william hill) while the draw is available at 17/4 (BETVICTOR).

The best bet in this game might be in taking both teams to score at 11/10 (STAN JAMES) although Spain have yet to concede a goal in this tournament the Norwegians possess a lot of firepower and have grabbed six in their three games so far and eleven in their last four games in total.

Italy and the Netherlands meet in the other semi-final in what looks like being a far closer meeting with bookmakers struggling to split the pair. Of the two I think the value lies with the Dutch at 24/13 (BWIN) though if you disagree you can back the Italians to win this game at 7/4 (CORAL) while the draw is a best priced 23/10 (SKYBET/BETVICTOR/william hill).

Going back to the outright markets and the race to be topscorer is an interesting one with Alvaro Morata heading the market with three goals from four players on two goals. Morata can be backed at 15/8 (SKYBET/betfred) and with the easiest of the two semi-finals might be fancied to go far. Others in the mix are Manolo Gabbiadini who is 6/1 (GENERAL) while Dutch duo Leroy Fer and Georgino Wijnaldum are next with Fer available at 10/1 (betfred/BETVICTOR/paddy Power) and Wijnaldum an 8/1 (GENERAL) chance. Those who think Spain will win the tournament and Morata will finish as top scorer can get the combination at 3/1 (BETVICTOR).

BEST OF THE BETS

GOLD: Netherlands to beat Italy in the semi-final, 24/13 (BWIN)
SILVER: Netherlands to win the U21 European Championship, 15/4 (BWIN/betway)
BRONZE: Both teams to score in Spain v Norway, 11/10 (STAN JAMES)

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14/06/2013     © Frixo 2026