Thursday’s match between France and Serbia will prove a good test for Les Bleus, who come into the match quietly emerging as one of the dark horses going into Euro 2012.
French coach Laurent Blanc will be pleased that his side was able to show resilience from a 2-0 deficit on Sunday to win 3-2 over Iceland. He'll not be happy, however, that his team had to come back from those two goals.The defensive lapses that almost cost France the match will be the key order of the day for Blanc to fine tune before the team travels to Ukraine to take on England in its first group stage match of the tournament.
Expected to start in the back four will be Gael Clichy and Laurent Koscielny, and with the final spots at the back still up for grabs, expect a strong performance, which means conceding less goals from the opposition.
France have won its last 19 matches, and have lost only twice since Blanc took over back in 2010. A win by Les Bleus is paying 1.53 at Ladbrokes.com. You could have odds of 3.50 should the game end up a draw also available at Ladbrokes.
The visiting Serbs lost 2-0 on the weekend to world champions Spain and will be without a few key players in this contest, including talented Fiorentina midfielder Adem Ljajic, who was sent home by coach Sinisa Mihajlovic after failing to sing the national anthem. The 20 year-old player is so far most known for being attacked from his club manager last month in Serie A.
Having not qualified for the Euro, the major focus for Mihajlovic will be to test out new players and tactics, and that is evident with quite a few regular players missing from the Serbian squad. An attempt at building new chemistry may prove difficult against a resurgent and hungry French team. The team has only won once in their 6 matches.
As a result, Serbia pays out 5.50 to walk away from France with the victory.
The under 2.5 looks appealing given France’s determination to solidify at the back combined with the fact that Serbia’s last seven games have not produced three goals. That offering is currently set at 1.72. If so, you may fancy that an even tighter affair with the under 1.5 providing a larger payout of 3.50.
Now here is something a bit different from your usual bets. An offering called ‘Coupled Correct Scores’ at Ladbrokes offers you a pair of two final match scores, and if the game ends in either of those scores you win.
So why not check out France at 1-0 or 2-0 in that section for a 3.00? A 1-0 or 2-1 will see you net 3.25. Of course, if you want to pick just one and increase your value you can simply hedge bets in the correct scoreline section. A 1-0 victory for France is at 6.00 and is also the same for a 2-0 win. A 0-0 draw is at 9.00 while a 1-1 draw would pay 6.50. The 2-1 France win is at 8.00.
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