They say every game’s a “must win” but that’s never more
true than in a Group Of Death and with Germany next and a poor record against Portugal, the hard
work begins now for hotly tipped (by this very blogger) European Championship
contenders Holland against the likely to be underrated Denmark, and Bert Van Maawijk’s
side make appeal at revised prices (they’ve moved out to 8/11 and even 3/4 in places) to start off with a vital win.
Runners up in the World Cup, Holland had previously won all
of their qualifying games and then won every single game in the finals until
Spain, and showed how much better they can be than what we saw in the final by
blitzing their qualifying group once again, scoring 37 goals and winning 9 out
of 10 games – their qualification was sealed by the time they lost away to
Sweden in the final group game. Admittedly if you take away their beatings of San
Marino they scored 21 only but that’s more than quite a few other team
appearing at these finals scored, and few teams can match their Netherlands for
attacking quality, as has been widely said by many pundits before the
tournament.
If there was one area of weakness for the Dutch, it would
have to be the defence, which leaked in all bar 2 games at the World Cup and
only kept two clean sheets throughought qualifying apart from the games against
San Marino. With Ron Vlaar or Wilfred Bouma are likely to partner Johnny Heitinga
in central defence for after Joris Mathijsen was ruled out of the game, with
Jetro Willems evidently promising to be in the squad but still just 18, which
puts him up against it given Dennis Rohmmeahl’s years of experience in
International football.
Denmark themselves – not given a hope in hell by anyone to
qualify, despite the fact they’re rated higher in the FIFA Rankings than
Portugal - are a better side than when the two last met, a 2-0 win for Holland
at the last World Cup that was half gifted by a freak own goal from Daniel
Agger after a tight opening game which hadn’t seen either side at their best.
They’ve since gone onto top a qualifying group which includes Portugal once
again, pipping the Portuguese to top spot with a 2-1 win in Copenhagen.
The Danes scored in each game of their qualifying campaign
for Euro 2012, and contain two potent attacking threats in highly rated Ajax
midfielder Christian Eriksen providing the opportunities for the once ridiculed
but now consistent Nicklas Bendter, who has scored in 6 of his last 9 international
appearances. Daniel Agger is going to
need to be at his best to keep out the waves of attacking talent that Holland
have (this is a side that can afford to have Klaas Jan Huntelaar, Luke De Jong
and Rafael Van Der Vaart on the bench), but going forward they might find some
gaps to exploit and while Holland are the call, Denmark can play their part in
an exciting game, with the 2-1 score appealing.
Advice
3 pts Holland (7/10 Sportingbet)
1 pt 2-1 Holland (8/1 Bet Victor)
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