Portugal v Wales Betting Preview – Euro 2016, 6th July
Another match at Euro 2016 which is too tight to call. The Welsh have come through the tournament brilliantly as underdogs and now just Portugal stand between them and a place in the Euro 2016 Final. What a brilliant achievement that would be for the Dragons who will be full of confidence after beating Belgium so easily in the last round. Portugal may be tiring having gone through their second extra time period where they needed a penalty shoot out to beat Poland in the last round. Wales may be the fresher of the two in what will be a showdown between Real Madrid giants Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.
Six of the last ten semi finals at the Euros have needed extra time and therefore, Betfred’s great anytime goalscorer promotion should serve you well. If you go and place a pre-match bet on an anytime goalscorer selection in a game and that player hasn’t scored during 90 minutes, but the game goes to extra time, then your bet will remain active! So you get the extra 30 minutes for your selected player to hit the back of the net. Register an account with Betfred and earn a £30 free bet as a welcome bonus.
Portugal v Wales Betting Tips
The fuel tank of the Portuguese may be running a little short at the moment. They needed extra time to get past Croatia in the round of sixteen and were then dragged through an other extra period against Poland in the quarter finals. Portugal have gone very defensive and unadventurous in the knockout stage, more concerned about losing than anything and they aren’t an expressive side to watch. That’s five 90 minute draws from five Euro 2016 games for Portugal at the moment and they looked to be clamming up further each step of the way. Of course there is some tiredness there, there must be and even star man Cristiano Ronaldo looks short of full fitness and confidence, notably missing a sitter against Poland. Ronaldo is running as 3/1 outright favourite in the first goalscorer market for the semi final showdown against Wales. Can he raise his game for his country?
While they haven’t looked very good going forward, you can point out their resilience. They fought back three times after having fallen behind against Hungary in the group stage to earn a draw. They kept the technically sound Croatia off the scoresheet in the round of sixteen and fought back from a goal down against Poland. They look as if they can be contained quite easily though. The last meeting between Portugal and Wales was back in 2000 when the Portuguese won 3-0 in friendly. Portugal have scored five goals in the championships so far, three of them coming in that draw with Hungary so they aren’t carrying a huge goalscoring threat overall. So that should point you to the game going under 2.5 goals which is a 4/9 option. A Portugal to win to nil wager will fetch a price of 2/1, but that looks a risky punt because Wales have scored 10 goals at the tournament, and only once has a British team scored more goals in a major tournament than that. That was England with 11 on their way to winning the 1966 World Cup.
So instead, backing Both teams to score in the contest may have more appeal at a quote of 6/5 over the 90 minutes. Wales took a great 3-1 win over Belgium in the quarter finals, the second time at Euro 2016 that they have scored three goals in a match following their 3-0 demolition of Russia in the group stage. Wales were the better side in the first half against Belgium and once they had weathered an early second half storm by Belgium, never looked like losing. A brilliant goal for Hal Robson-Kanu put them in the lead after having fallen behind in the game and they never looked back. Gareth Bale is a 7/4 anytime goalscorer punt for the game, with Sam Vokes 3/1 and Hal Robson-Kanu at 4/1. They have played the underdog role perfectly so far, the work rate they have produced is phenomenal and Chris Coleman has gotten everything tactically spot on. Their big loss for the semi final though is Aaron Ramsey who misses out through suspension along with defender Ben Davies. Ramsey has produced four assists at Euro 2016 and that’s a big influence to be missing.
Portugal v Wales Betting Odds
Portugal 23/20, Draw 21/10, Wales 16/5
Portugal v Wales Predictions
Who would write Wales off at this point? The big question mark for Wales is that they will be missing Aaron Ramsey, their best player at the tournament. But Wales as a unit are competing with heart and determination whereas Portugal have looked pretty lifeless in the knockout stage. You can’t ignore the resilience that Portugal have though and it’s worth considering the outright draw over 90 minutes.
