Pre-match Preview: EURO 2012 England vs France

History and recent performance are on France’s side before their first match at EURO 2012 tonight against England. Clearly, France is the favorite team to win this match.

England team has to wait 714 days before their first big tournament after the defeat at World Cup 2010.

Many things have changed since then, however mostly during the last 6 months. First, Wayne Rooney receives a 2 match ban from UEFA after a serious foul during the qualification round. Then, Fabio Capello suddenly resigned as coach of Englandfollowing FA’s decision over Terry’s captaincy.

Recently, injury has attacked England squad, resulting in Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry and Gary Cahill out of play.

Therefore, it’s understandable that even English fans do not keep their hope up for EURO 2012. Whether Roy Hodgson and team can prove otherwise is remained to be seen.

On the other hand, France has been one of the most consistent team till this point. They started their EURO campaign with 21 unbeatable matches, 15 of which are wins.Belarus was the last team defeated Les Bleus in Sept, 2011.

It’s safe to say that France is totally different from their ugly self during EURO 2008 and World Cup 2010. Behind this change has been Laurent Blanc, France’s new coach. He was able to awaken the desire in each of team member. He uses players like Yohan Cabaye and Yann M’Vila and recreated the creativity and flexibility of Benzema and Ribery. France, in our opinion, is a very tough opponent for any team at the moment.

Let's take a look at some statistic

Head to head record is in favor of France too. They won 4 times and drew 1 time in the last 5 encounters.

Interesting Facts

When Joy Hodgson stepped in Donetsk stadium tonight, he will be the first English man to coach their national team since Kevin Keagan during EURO 2000.

Meanwhile, Laurent Blanc is hoping to reach Berti Vogts (Germany) record – the first person to win EURO both as player and coach (1972 and 1996 respectively).

Our prediction

England is likely play defense, however their strength at midfield has decreased with the absence of important players due to injury. Therefore, it seems to be a win forFrance.

Our prediction: England vs France: 0-1

36BOL Offers and Odds

Let’s take a look at the major market offered by 36BOL.com. Asian Handicap 0 looks like a safe bet if you pick France at odds 0,77. If you want a better payoff with a little bit of risk, pick France (-) 0/0.5 at odds 1.205.

1x2 market was offered at 4.10 for England, 1.89 for Draw and 3.30 for France(Decimal odds). These are considered the best odds after we compare with many other bookies.

For more odds, picks and betting, visit 36BOL Sportsbook.