by Antony Jordan
Bale your going to need run against Belgium or else you won’t get any fries!
With less than a year until the start of the 2016 European Championships we are halfway through the qualification groups and this weekend sees some vital clashes around the continent. We’re taking a look at the best games playing on Friday and providing our best Euro 2016 tips with online sportsbook 10bet.com.
Croatia v Italy: 2.30 – 3.05 – 3.15
The Stadion Poljud, home of Croatian football team HNK Hajduk Split, hosts this top of the table clash from Group H of the 2016 European Championship qualifying campaign. Croatia top Group H with 13 points following four wins and a 1-1 draw in Italy last November while their guests this Friday trail by two points after drawing 2-2 away at Bulgaria following their home draw with their hosts in round six of their qualification campaign.
The home side will be the more confident coming into this match as they are 3-0-0 on home soil in this campaign with 2-0, 6-0 and 5-1 wins over Malta, Azerbaijan and Norway while Italy have not looked the best on their travels with a 2-0 win in Norway the high point for them. Eking out a 1-0 win in Malta before drawing 2-2 in Bulgaria leaves us in doubt as to why the Italians are the outsiders for this match.
The Croatian side also warmed up for this qualifier with a 4-0 win over Gibraltar last Sunday while the Italians have not played since a 1-1 draw with England at the end of March. As well as all of this Croatia are unbeaten in seven against Antonio Conte’s men having won three and drawn four since 1994. With their impressive home form this campaign we can see the home side extending their grip of the Group H lead with all three points.
Back Croatia to beat Italy at the Stadion Poljud this Friday at odds of 2.30 in the 10bet Sportsbook is the best of our Group H Euro 2016 tips.
Wales v Belgium: 5.00 – 3.55 – 1.68
The top of the table clash in Group B of the race to France next summer is a much closer contest than the Group H battle in Croatia as both Belgium and Wales are separated by goal difference in first and second. The away side have scored almost twice as many goals as their hosts at the Cardiff City Stadium, at 13 – 7, and have conceded just a single goal, which is half the amount of the Welsh.
However, this superior attacking and defensive record did not do them well when the sides clashed in November as the game ended 0-0 as the Welsh stifled the home side in Brussels to take a point back home, and this would certainly not have been one of our top Euro 2016 tips as the Belgians were expected to ease to victory after an excellent World Cup just months beforehand. The home side this Friday drew from that performance as their last match in Group B saw Arsenal and Real Madrid players Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale find the net three times to topple Israel from the top of the group in an impressive 3-0 win on the road.
They have drawn 0-0 with Bosnia-Herzegovina and beaten Cyprus 2-1 on home soil but face their toughest task in this game as they have not warmed up for the Belgians and the visitors bring a massive amount of confidence with ten goals and three straight wins since drawing with Wales at the end of last year. They defeated France in a friendly last Sunday with Manchester United’s Marouane Fellani netting two and Chelsea’s Edin Hazard scoring as well in a 4-3 win but a 1-1 draw in Bosnia and a 1-0 win in Israel shows that Marc Wilmots’ team will be more defensive in Cardiff this Friday.
Despite this, and their 0-0 draw in the last meeting, we can see goals in this game as both sides put some breathing room between themselves and the chasing pack going into the second half of matches in Group B. As such, we see plenty of chances and goalmouth action, especially with both sides having plenty of attacking quality within their squads, and as goals are available at better than evens odds we see there being plenty of value on goals at the home of Cardiff City FC this Friday evening.
Back both teams to score at odds of 2.10 with 10bet.com is the best of our Euro 2016 tips from this Wales v Belgium match, although we are tempted by +2.5 goals in the game at odds of 2.20 as well.