Features

Want to bet that Ronaldo can topple the Spaniards tonight?
Will Spain pass Portugal to oblivion and send worldwide audiences to sleep tonight? We're betting on a Portugal upset instead.
Most football fans are expecting a Germany v Spain Euro 2012 final on Sunday night, yet it’s the Spanish who have been recently displaying the kind of ruthless, efficient football of Germans from years past.
As the reigning European and World champions – not to mention the lowest-scoring World Cup winners in the history of the competition – there’s every chance we could witness a technically marvelous but dour 1-0 grind from the Spaniards. That is, unless one man can stop them.
With all due respect to his Portuguese teammates, not since Wham! has there been a more obvious example of one star performer dragging a series of untalented lunks to success almost single-handedly.
Having silenced the opposition crowds who cruelly chant “Messi, Messi!” when he takes to the field with three goals in four games and a record-breaking shots on target tally (21, if you must know), we’re banking on a performance tonight from Ronny that’ll be even slicker than his perfectly coiffed hairdo.
He is 11/2 with Paddy Power to be the first goalscorer tonight, while there's an extra incentive too as the bookmakers will refund all losing First Goalscorer, Last Goalscorer, Correct Score & Scorecast singles on the match should Ronaldo be the last goalscorer.
Speaking of Ronaldo, we’re finding a huge amount of value in the possibility that just like he did against The Netherlands, he could nab at least a brace tonight – he's 17/1 to score two or more goals; even Barcelona diehards would struggle to pass up that opportunity. To put that bet into perspective, Fernando Torres is rather puzzlingly available of lower odds of 14/1 to do the same.
If, however, both sides keep it tight at the back as expected, we could be heading for a low-scoring game, so we’re optimistic at the chance of a 0-0 scoreline at half-time followed by a 1-1 result at the end of 90 minutes. At 14/1, it’ll net you plenty before a tense half-hour of extra time begins.
Last and probably least likely to happen, there’s a minute possibility that tonight’s game will produce an identical scoreline to the last time the sides faced one another back in November 2010.
Crazy as it sounds, the Portuguese hammered a sorry Spanish side 4-0, and the odds of that happening tonight are an appropriately ludicrous 375-1. No, it’s likely not going to happen this time around, yet it might end up being the most memorable €1 you'll ever spend.
- Sign in with JOE
- Connect with Facebook
- Sign in with Twitter
