Three large stake sellections for the Saturday early J-League games, but just one small bet for me today in Germany , where we already have an interest in Austria . Pre tournament I wrote .....

 

I have liked the chances of Austria for a while, they have to be suited by playing in Germany. They are coached by Ralf Rangnick who came into the role  promising to play entertaining football and he has been good to his word. Austria have lost just once in 16 starts, a run which included 2+ goals wins over Italy, Sweden (twice), Germany and Turkey (6-1) and the loss was by the odd goal in five to Belgium. Rangnick was approached by Bayern Munich in April for their vacant position, he spoke to the Bavarian giants and was offered, but declined the job. Rangnick is very well respected and credited with inventing Gegenpressing, certainly with introducing it into German football and he will have a game plan for each opponent suited to his squad. They are in a tough section alongside France, Poland and Netherlands, but meet the French first which might be the best time to do so and they are not going to fear anyone . Injuries to Alaba, Schlager and Kaladjzic are a crying shame and dampen enthusiasm slightly, but they are greater than the sum of their parts and very much a collective and they will play on the front foot and with high energy and if nothing else, they will be a fun watch and are my idea of a dark horse.

 

They lost their opener 1-0 to France, but no shame in that and they were, anyway, unlucky IMO , they played at a high level all over the pitch and showed great energy and were tactically good and held their own. Poland also opened with a loss , 2-1 to the Netherlands where they gave up an enormous number of chances (21) and touches inside the box (44), with the Dutch wasteful. I have to stick with Austria who have impressed me the most out of any non-winning team at these championships.

 

Ukraine opened with a horror show 3-0 defeat to Romania where they saw a lot of the ball, but did little with it and having come into the tournament with hope and an awful lot of goodwill from pretty much every other nation, it was a huge disappointment.  They had impressed in qualifying in a tough group containing England and Italy picking up 14 points and with Belgium to play on Matchday 3, need something today and preferably a win. In stark contrast, Slovakia are coming off the shock of the tournament so far, a 1-0 win over Belgium, where the losers missed 4 BC's. They also opened with a win at the last Euros, which was also a bit of a smash and grab and came against 10 men, before losing their next two and being eliminated and Ukraine will be hoping that history repeats. Ukraine would also like to try and do something about that goal difference.

 

 

Good luck!