Euro 2016 Preview: Allez Les Bleus!

The French national football team is never far away from controversy, but at least manager Didier Deschamps has managed to avoid any further embarrassment by leaving Mathieu Valbuena out of his 23-man squad for Euro 2016. Last year, the Lyon midfielder and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema were at the heart of a bizarre blackmail story, which saw Benzema arrested and investigated for attempting to extort money from his former team-mate over a sex tape. Deschamps claims Valbuena was omitted from the squad because of ‘fitness problems’. The French Football Federation has said it will not Benzema, who is still being investigated.

Tabloid gossip aside, France were the last host nation to with the European Championship, in 1984 and, having reached the World Cup quarter-finals in 2014 under Deschamps, are favourites to win again this time. Despite automatic qualification as the host nation, under a UEFA initiative France effectively played a ‘qualifying’ campaign, in the form of friendly matches, home and away, against the five teams in qualifying Group I – Portugal, Albania, Denmark, Serbia and Armenia – and lost just once, 1-0 to Albania, away, last June. “Les Bleus” may not have played a competitive match since beating Russia 4-2 at the Stade de France in March, but have friendlies against Cameroon on May 30 and Scotland on June 4 to blow away any cobwebs.

The absence of Benzema and Real Madrid team-mate Raphael Varane is obviously not ideal, but the French squad has plenty of strength in depth. Paris St-Germain playmaker Blaise Matuidi – described by Didier Deschamps as the ‘first name on the team sheet’ – is the driving force behind a dynamic and athletic midfield, which also features Paul Pogba of Juventus and N’Golo Kante of Leicester City, who made his international debut against the Netherlands in March.

Even without Benzema, Didier Deschamps can call on the likes of Olivier Giroud (Arsenal), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Anthony Martial (Manchester United) and Dimitri Payet (West Ham) in a three-man front line, not to mention Patrice Evra (Juventus), Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal) and Bacary Sagna (Manchester City) in defence and Hugo Lloris (Tottenham) between the sticks.

France are top-priced 7/2 to lift the European Championship trophy, which may seem a little skinny, but they should qualify with ease from Group A, which features Albania, Romania and Switzerland. If they win the group, they’ll face the third placed team from Group C, Group D or Group E in the last 16 before facing the winner of the match between the runners-up in Group B and runners-up in Group F in the quarter-finals. In other words, it’ll be the semi-finals before they face any of the other fancied teams, by which time 7/2 could start to look rather generous.

Selection: France to win Euro 2016 (7/2 with Paddy Power)

England vs Estonia Prediction (Friday 9th, 19:45)

England has already qualified for the UEFA European Championship, which effectively renders the fixture with Estonia at Wembley on Friday, October 9 meaningless. To have any hope of qualifying, Estonia must not only beat England, but also rely on perennial European whipping boys San Marino to take at least a point off Switzerland in Bern. According to our friends at Oddschecker, both eventualities are 25/1, so only diehard visiting fans are likely to make the trip to northwest London on Friday.

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has expressed his hope that Roy Hodgson will spare Wayne Rooney for at least one of the two remaining qualifying fixtures against Estonia and Lithuania (on Monday). Hodgson, for his part, has expressed his desire to finish with a perfect record and hinted that he is more likely to ‘experiment’ in the game against Lithuania, so it will be a surprise if Rooney doesn’t take at least some part on Friday.

It’s worth remembering that only a Wayne Rooney free-kick separated the teams in Tallinn in October, after the hosts were reduced to ten men early in the second half, so there may not be as much between as the 1-x-2 odds of 1/6, 8/1 and 28/1 suggest. Complacency, on the part of the home side, is always a possibility, but there should be no lack of ambition on the part of Jamie Vardy, or debutantes Danny Ings and Delle Alli, if called upon.

With 77 places between the teams, according to official FIFA rankings, and Estonia all but eliminated, an early England goal could put the visitors firmly on the back foot, so let’s try a punt on the Three Lions to win 3-0!

Selection: England to beat Estonia 3-0 (5/1 with Bet365)

Women's World Cup: England vs Japan

I thought being excited about England games was a thing of the past for me, with the dire performances of the men's team managing to disappoint fans in each and every major competition in recent memory. Little did I know I'd be planning to stay up to watch the England women take on last tournaments winners Japan in the semi final of the World Cup. Should they go on to win they'll take on the US, who have been more than formidable, not conceding a single goal in their previous 5 games. They'll be favourites in the final no matter who emerges victorious from this encounter.

It has to be said that the England team has already exceeded expectations, so it's no surprise they find themselves as the outsider in tonight's game. That said they've shown enough that we can't simply write them off, especially if they get off to a good start as they did against Canada in the quarter finals. With Japan at 6/5, England 29/10 and the draw 23/10 there's not an awful lot of meat in the bone. Many pundits anticipate a cagey, low scoring affair, but the tournament has had it's surprises so far and I'm more inclined to think and hope they'll be more action than anticipated.

This is the furthest our women have reached and I expect they will very much for viewing it as a final. The biggest concern for England is the technical prowess of the Japan team. Our women did beat Japan in the group stages last time around though, so this isn't beyond them.Everything taken into account though, Japan have shown more.

No bet for me at these odds, but my heart says England and my head says Japan.