Jack Wright's Quarter-Final
50/1 Fourfold

What a way for us to kick off the quarter finals of Euro 2024. Both sides are unbeaten in the tournament with Spain winning all four of their fixtures so far. Germany of course has home advantage and now haven’t lost in eight games under Julian Nagelsmann.

The swashbuckling Spanish under Luis de la Fuente cruised into the last eight with a 4-1 beating of Georgia and are still yet to concede a goal scored by an opposition player. This one is very tight to call with both sides full of attacking threat and as such I can’t pick a winner. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the first quarter final go all the way to penalties but for the purpose of this bet it is a draw after 90 minutes for me.

Another tie between two of the fancied nations which should make the mouth water. However, I am not convinced this is going to be the entertaining end to end thriller that it looks on paper. Portugal came out on the right side of the first penalty shootout of the tournament against Slovenia on Monday. Diogo Costa undoubtedly the hero not just for saving all three spot kicks he faced but for denying Benjamin Sesko when clean through on goal with five minutes of extra time remaining. While Cristiano Ronaldo continues to lead the line, I don’t think we are seeing the best of Portugal as an attacking force.

The desire to get the 39-year-old on the scoresheet at a sixth consecutive Euros (none more so from the man himself) seems to have become more important than the team performance. Having missed a penalty against the Slovenians Ronaldo is still searching for his first goal despite having had a tournament high 20 shots. France continues to misfire and their three goals at Euro 2024 have come from two own goals and a Kylian Mbappé penalty. Les Bleus have shown themselves to be defensively sound having conceded just once – and that being a twice taken penalty. This screams 0-0 to me so I am happy to back the draw here too.

The Swiss were superb as they rolled over Italy and progressed to the last eight. A well-balanced side, playing vibrant football who look full of confidence. Like how they did against the Italians expect Switzerland to press high and energetically look to force errors from a makeshift England defence. One of the few bright spots for Gareth Southgate has been central defender Marc Guehi’s performances but he is suspended for this quarter final clash.

Kieran Trippier looks likely to finally succumb to his calf injury which could see Bukayo Saka deployed as a left back. Having been saved from elimination by an acrobatic Jude Bellingham a minute from time in the last round this step up in class looks likely to finally find England out. Of course, they have the talent, but it would take a monumental leap forward in performance to avoid defeat against a side whose tactics are running like clockwork.

Is the Netherlands peaking at just the right time? Well, they certainly put in their best performance of the tournament on Tuesday night in sweeping aside Romania. Cody Gakpo was electric and joined the pack on three goals at the head of the top goalscorer charts when he thundered in the opening goal of the game. He also expertly assisted Donyell Malen for the decisive second goal and had another effort of his own correctly ruled out by VAR. When on song the combined threat of Gakpo, Malen, Memphis Depay, Steven Bergwijn and Xavi Simons strike fear into any defence.

Turkey will have to make do without midfielders Orkun Kokcu and Ismail Yuksek who are both suspended. They also expended a lot of energy in frantically holding on to their 2-1 advantage over Austria in the last 16. The Austrians had 57% of the ball, attempted 21 shots to the Turks six and posted an expected goals total of 2.73 to the 0.87 of Vincenzo Montella’s side. Both their goals came from corners with defender Merih Demiral bagging his first ever brace at international level. At the other end Mert Gunok produced the save of the tournament in the dying seconds to ensure his nation progressed. With an excellent defensive unit led by Virgil van Dijk the Netherlands can nullify that threat while exposing a weary Turkish rear guard to take their place in the semi-finals.