Two of the tournament underdogs meet in the quarter finals, with both feeling they have a genuine chance of making it to a major international tournament semi final. Denmark are everyone’s second team given the events of the opening week and they take on a Czech side who dumped out The Netherlands in the last 16. Whilst this may not be one of the most appealing quarter final ties from a neutral point of view, we should be in for a well contested and hard fought game.]
In their 4 games played at this tournament so far, The Czech Republic have scored 5 goals, conceded 2, had 40 shots with 14 on target, have had an average possession of 46.25%, have been given 5 yellow cards, no red cards and taken 19 corners.
In their 4 games Denmark have scored 9 goals, conceded 4, had 75 shots with 29 on target, have had an average possession of 58.75%. have been given 4 yellow cards, no red cards and taken 27 corners.
The referee for this game is Bjorn Kuipers (Holland), who this season has refereed 34 games, giving 83 yellow cards and 4 red cards, for an average of 2.44 yellow cards per game and 0.12 red cards per game. In his career to date he has taken charge of 257 games, handing out 840 yellow cards and 39 red cards, for an average of 3.27 yellow cards per game and 0.15 red cards per game.
The bookmakers (All prices Skybet) have Denmark as the 8/15 favourites to win this tie, with The Czechs at 11/8. Denmark are 21/10 to get the job done inside 90 minutes, with Czech Republic 14/5 to win in normal time, and a draw at the end of regular time is 11/5.
I feel the bookies have this one priced up right. Denmark should be favourites but you can’t ignore this Czech side, especially after they beat Holland in the last round, though admittedly they were helped massively by Holland going down to 10 men early in the second half. The Czechs won’t change their approach what so ever, they are defensively organised and are not afraid to go direct when they get the chance to attack. They carry a potent threat from free kicks and corners, and will feel that is an area where they may have some joy against the smaller Danish side. I can see Denmark having more of possession as they probe and try to break down The Czech defence, Denmark have had nearly twice as many shots as The Czech Republic so I expect them to be the ones who really take the game by the scruff of the neck. I was surprised at how dominant Denmark were against Wales, I don’t think it was a great Wales performance by any means, but the fact that Denmark had 16 shots in that game and 50% of them found the target, with them also taking 9 corners, shows that when they got attacking opportunities they usually created something for themselves. This Czech defence are no mugs though, and having only conceded 2 goals all tournament they didn’t even allow the Dutch to register a shot on target in the last round, so they will feel confident of being able to pull something off here. I see a tight game that Denmark just edge by a 2-1 score line. I would not be surprised to see The Czech Republic grab a goal from a set piece, but I just feel Denmark have a slight edge in class across the pitch that will likely prove the difference in the end.
The best bets in this game are
Denmark to score 2+ goals, 5+ Denmark corners and 20+ Czech Republic booking points – 9/2 Skybet
8+ Denmark corners – 3/1 Skybet
Draw at half time and Denmark to win inside 90 minutes – 4/1 Skybet
Tomas Soucek and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg both to be carded – 10/1 William Hill (We advise waiting for starting line ups to be announced before backing this bet)
