Portugal and Poland will compete for the first place in the last four of Euro 2016 when they meet at the Stade Velodrome in Thursday’s quarter-final.
Having squeezed past Croatia with an injury-time winner in the last round, Fernando Santos’ men are 5/4 (2.25) favourites with NetBet to advance to the next stage within 90 minutes this time out. Meanwhile, the White Eagles needed penalties to see off Switzerland in their last encounter but are on offer at 3/1 (4.00) to come out on top in Marseille.
GettyEach of the last two meetings between the sides have resulted in draws, and you can get odds of 9/5 (2.80) on them taking this one into extra-time with another stalemate. Although it was most expected to benefit the smaller nations, the expanded nature of this year’s European Championship has allowed the Selecao to reach this stage without winning a single match in normal time so far.
Restricted to just one goal in their opening two games against Iceland and Austria, Cristiano Ronaldo and Co. finally found their killer touch by scoring three times in the third match versus Hungary – only to concede three at the other end of the pitch.
gOALThis inability to turn draws into wins is likely to be exposed once again in Marseille, although the game looks set to follow a more familiar pattern to those first two group games than the six-goal Hungarian thriller. As the lowest-scoring team left in the competition with just three goals to their name after four matches, Adam Nawalka’s side owes their success so far to a strong defensive unit that has conceded just once.
With this in mind, those 9/5 (2.80) odds seem more than fair on a resilient Polish outfit holding Portugal to a fifth consecutive draw with their third stalemate in four matches – and third in a row against this opposition.
| Draw at 9/5 (2.80) for a 1.5pt stake with NetBet |
