EURO 2012 Qualifiers: Accumulator Picks

Leg 1: Republic of Ireland
Leg 2: Sweden
Leg 3: England
Leg 4: Greece

Bet Type: Accumulator
Odds/Best Priced Firm: 4.53 with BetFred

Our four-timer this week isn’t going to make anyone rich any time soon, but we shouldn’t encounter too many problems landing this beauty!

We begin with our friends the Irish, who could potentially knock us out before we’ve even got a taste of Friday’s internationals. The Republic of Ireland travel to Armenia for their opening Group B clash, without manager Giovanni Trapattoni, but have been boosted by the news that Robbie Keane is fit enough to feature and is set to start up front alongside Kevin Doyle. Both Keane and Doyle haven’t had a fruitful start to the new season, with neither managing a goal and Keane rarely featuring at all. Their attentions now turn towards their country and getting the ROI back on map with qualification for Poland-UKraine 2012, but ‘The Boys in Green’ begin with a tricky trip away to Armenia, where the hosts can literally be anything on their day.

The absence of Damien Duff is a concern as Ireland now look more solid in midfield rather than boasting creativity, but in two reliable forwards Ireland should prosper providing their midfield keep it together and maintain the flow of possession through to their attacking assets. John O’Shea and Richard Dunne’s experience will serve Ireland well at the back, with their goal being guarded by an astute Shay Given, so theirs a chance here of Ireland sneaking a narrow away win, possibly by the slimmest of margins in a 1-0 win. We don’t care much about the final scoreline, just that Ireland arrive home in Dublin the victors!

Next up comes the improving Swede’s, who will be bitterely dissappointed that they didn’t qualify for South Africa during the summer after failing to qualify from a tough Group A which contained Denmark, Portugal and Hungary, who they’ll face on Friday in Solna. Since that disappointment however, Sweden have gone about rectifying their World Cup flaws by playing half-a-dozen friendly internationals against a variety of opponents. In six mixed encounters, Sweden played Italy, Oman, Wales, Bosnia, Belarus and Scotland, with only the Italians recording a win over Erik Hamren’s side.

On home soil Sweden recently beat Scotland 3-0 in a convincing win in all aspects, while before that they also beat a dangerous Bosnia side, so Swedish tails are rightly wagging ahead of their European campaign. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is their star player and his morale will have sky-rocketed after he completed his big-money move to the San Siro with AC Milan, and he will be eager to impress his new employers while on International duty. We watched their opponents, Hungary, against England and despite taking a second half lead before squandering their advantage, we didn’t see an awful lot that would frighten Sweden, who should have all the necessary ingredients to begin qualifying with aplomb.

Now England maybe still reeling following their disastrous World Cup, and this was clearly evident in a recent friendly with Hungary, where the Three Lions required a sublime brace from captain Steven Gerrard to spare their blushes and make an instant return to winning ways. However, that poor display came before the season commenced and with valuable miles now on the clocks of the players, we’re expecting nothing less than a performance of real quality, this despite missing key personnel in the form of John Terry, Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch. There is, though, plenty left in reserve for Fabio Capello, with the midfield boasting mass amount of creativity, guile and craft while we all know what Rooney can do when in the mood – The latter ended his lengtyh scoring drought just before the international break with Manchester United and the Bulgarians could be the unlucky opponent where Rooney locates his swagger and confidence in front of goal.

The Greek’s are a weird sort; never nice to look at but always thereabouts these days when it comes to making an appearance in the high profile tournaments. So often clinical and rarely overwhelming, Greece will fancy their chances of qualifying for another European Championship, eight years after they claimed the 2004 crown, in a Group F where only Croatia look a threat on paper. With that said, it’s pivotal that the Greek’s, who are under new management Otto Rehhagel’s resignation in the form of Portuguese manager Fernando Santos,  get off to a promising start and at least keep up with Croatia, who should collect all three points from their clash with Latvia.

Santos hasn’t made too many changes to the Greece team, which is good because the players will know each other well but they really did look poor when striding forward during the summer’s finals and something urgently needs to change from that point of view. And it should, with the Portuguese renowned for playing technical football with a bit of flair. It will take them a while before they really get in the groove but we’re hoping to see some significant signs of forward improvement from Greece.