Portugal v Iceland Betting Preview – Euro 2016, 14th June
Iceland came through their qualification group in second place and now they make their debut in the European Championship finals. What can they produce at the Finals though? They have a tough opener against the experience Portugal side though, who looked decent in a recent friendly match up against England at Wembley, without Cristiano Ronaldo. Will the Real Madrid man get to open his account at Euro 2016 in this one, which Portugal are favoured to win?
Obviously there is going to be some focus on Ronaldo here. Place a first goalscorer wager on the match with Betfred and if your selection goes on to score a second or a third in the match at any time, then you will be paid out double or treble your original odds on the first goalscorer bet! This great offer could really boost your returns and when you open an account with Betfred you can claim up to £50 worth of free bets as a bonus from them.
Portugal v Iceland Betting Tips
Well Portugal seemed to struggle a bit through their qualification group for Euro 2016 which was a surprise because it was an easy, easy group. They still topped the pile comfortably, but they only scored the eleven goals along the way against some weak opposition that they faced. But then again you look at how Portugal are set up and that is just their way. They like to keep things tight and solid and they don’t always play a very open game. In their recent game against England in a friendly they showed that they can still take control of games and with ten men as well. Cristiano Ronaldo was not out to face England, but he returned for a 7-0 win over Estonia before Portugal headed to France 2016. Ronaldo scored twice in that rout of Estonia.
The great Real Madrid man is trading at a quote of 8/1 to win the Golden Boot at Euro 2016 and there’s a decent chance he could fill his boots in the group stage. He can be backed at a price of 5/2 in the first goalscorer market for this one and he is trading at 10/11 in the anytime goalscorer market. These two nations have only met twice before which was back in qualifying for Euro 2012. Portugal won both of those meetings, scoring eight goals in total across them. Surprisingly Cristiano Ronaldo was only on the mark once in all those goals. But, both teams scored in both of those meetings and if you want to push for that happening ahead here you can back both teams to score at 5/4. May be worth a flutter considering Portugal have only taken three clean sheets in their last eight.
This will be the European Championship debut for Iceland then and they put together a decent qualification campaign. They finished in second place behind the Czech Republic in Group A. Along the way, Iceland took two wins over the Netherlands and a victory over the Czechs as well. However, they are heavy underdogs here and they aren’t in great form right now. In their last eleven games played they have only won the three games, losing six of those. They have scored nine goals in their last three games though and are on an eight match scoring streak, but to be honest they really haven’t faced anyone of note since losing heavily against Poland last year. This is a big step up for Iceland and it may be a tough introduction to the Championships for them.
Portugal v Iceland Betting Odds
Portugal 3/5, Draw 27/10, Iceland 13/2
Portugal v Iceland Predictions
Iceland may find the going tough in this one, breaking down Portugal is never that easy and it’s questionable whether Iceland have enough to do that. This is one of those games where Portugal will probably grind out a low scoring win, back them to do it to nil in a game which goes comfortably under 2.5 goals.
