Betting: Will France provide the bulk of the goals in a tight round of quarter-finals?

After five of the eight last 16 ties were decided by a single goal or penalties, the Euro 2016 quarter-finals look set to produce yet more tightly-contested encounters.

Forced to come from behind to see off the Republic of Ireland 2-1 in the last round, France are bet365’s 5/2 (3.50) favourites to muster the most goals when they take on the Iceland team that embarrassed England.

Having scored exactly twice in three of their four matches at this competition so far, Didier Deschamps’ men should feel confident of finding some joy against a defence that is yet to keep a clean sheet this summer.

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However, as Roy Hodgson found out the hard way, it would be dangerous for the French defence to underestimate a team that has hit the back of the net in each of their last 12 matches, with Strakkarnir okkar available at 25/1 (26.00) to spring another surprise as the top scorers of the round.

Leading scorers in the competition after thrashing Hungary 4-0 in the last round to make it eight goals in total, Belgium are sure to attract plenty of attention at 10/3 (4.33) when they take on Wales 12/1 (13.00) .

On the other hand, considering Chris Coleman’s men kept clean sheets in both of their games against the Red Devils in qualification and have conceded just three goals in four games in France, it would be optimistic to expect too much goalmouth action when they meet again.

After doubling their goal tally for the campaign with a 3-0 win over Slovakia, Germany 6/1 (7.00) will surely be in for a much more frustrating evening when they take on an Italian 10/1 (11.00) defence that neutralised an impressive Spain team by recording a third clean sheet in four.

As the only team yet to concede a single goal as yet in this tournament, Joachim Low’s side are also sure to make life much more difficult for the Azzurri at the other end of the pitch.

Finally, Portugal 6/1 (7.00) will need Cristiano Ronaldo to be on top form when they come up against a Poland 10/1 (11.00) team that has reached the final eight despite scoring just three times so far – thanks largely to a backline that has let in one solitary goal.

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