France v Albania Betting Preview – Euro 2016, 15th June
France didn’t play all that well in the first game, a couple of their key players not really producing in the game. Still, they managed to grind out a 2-1 win over Romania in the tournament’s opening match, which is rarely a great game in any competition. So with settled nerves and three points in the bag without having played well, can the French drive on from there? Albania were unlucky in their opening loss against Switzerland, but battled ever so well after having had a man sent off. They need to get something out of this difficult match to stay alive.
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France v Albania Betting Tips
The French have probably breathed a huge sigh of relief after having gotten their tense nervous opener out of the way. They should get better from here on out and it’s not always a bad thing to have a poor match and still come out on top. With three points in the bag they can relax a bit and that pressure of opening night will be well behind them. Not all of their star players really performed on the night, particularly Paul Pogba in the midfield, but they have such a quality bench that it wasn’t that much of an issue. So it is on to face Albania on Wednesday and Olivier Giroud, who took some flack in the opening match, but silenced critics with a goal, is trading at a price of 10/11 in the anytime goalscorer market for the game, with Antoine Griezmann at 11/10. The French are a decent punt of 8/15 to go and win to nil in this one.
That’s not unreasonable. The French have scored at least two goals in nine of their last ten games played and with them likely to be much better than opening night, should deliver the goods. Over in the correct score market you can take a France 2-0 correct score for a price of 4/1 which probably has huge appeal. This will be just the seventh meeting between France and Albania and while France hold a positive W4 D1 L1 record in the head to head, it was Albania who won the most recent meeting by a 1-0 scoreline. That was a friendly match back in June last year. Over the six previous meetings between the two sides, France have averaged exactly two goals per game against Albania. They were a little slow out of the blocks, but this is a good chance for them to step on the gas a bit.
Albania not only lost their opener against Switzerland, but they also lost their captain Lorik Cana. That is a massive blow to their heart of their game after he got red carded for a second bookable offence. So Albania are really up against it now in the group, however, if you are looking for a positive then they played really well with ten men against Switzerland and created some fantastic chances. The disappointment for them was that they could not take any of them and that could have been down to Switzerland’s poor defending as well. Albania have a W2 D1 L3 record in their last six games played now and the wins in that sequence were against Luxembourg and Qatar. This is a huge step up in the level of opposition for them and they may well struggle to make too much of an impact in the game.
France v Albania Betting Odds
France 1/5, Draw 6/1, Albania 18/1
France v Albania Predictions
Albania are not likely to get too much of a foothold in the game at all really. You would expect Les Bleus to be much better than they were in the opener and it should be a routine, comfortable men for the host nation. Look for the French to win to nil and maybe a 2-0 correct score going in their favour too.
