Holland need to make history to stay alive at Euro 2012
Published:Somehow Holland are not out of Euro 2012 despite losing their opening two Group B games and although it will mean making history, 11/2 seems decent value that they qualify for the knockout stages of Euro 2012.
After defeats to Denmark and Germany, Holland should be already preparing to come home, but given the other results in the group, they can still mathematically creep through.
To have any chance Holland will need to beat Portugal by two goals and also hope that Germany retain their 100 per cent record at the tournament.
The cynics will say that Germany may settle for draw against Denmark to confirm the exit of one of their major rivals for overall victory, but the Danes will have to go for the win as a point would not be enough to progress if Portugal beat Holland in the other game.
Since the European Championships moved from two points to three points for a victory at Euro 96, never has a team ever qualified from the group stages with any less than four points.
Meanwhile, even studying the results at World Cups does not make good reading for the Dutch.
Chile did qualify from the group stages of the World Cup with just three points in 1998, but the way their group unfolded was entirely different to that of Holland.
Italy were the only team in Chile’s group to win a game, while every other team in Holland’s group have triumphed at least once.
However, if Holland are to progress they will have to end a winless streak stretching back over 20 years against Portugal.
Holland have only triumphed in one of their ten career meetings with Portugal and have lost each of the last two encounters at major tournament finals.
It is 7/5 in the Euro 2012 odds that Holland beat Portugal and 7/1 that they secure a 2-0 success to boost their chances of reaching the last eight.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
