Bookies can’t split England and France ahead of Euro 2012 opener

New England manager Roy Hodsgon gets his reign underway against Norway on Saturday in a friendly ahead of Euro 2012 but one man isn’t expecting any fireworks from England in Poland and Ukraine.

England and France are widely expected to progress from their group and the bookies are struggling to split the two in the betting for their Euro 2012 match. Both sides are available at 9/5 to win the opener in places and that result will dictate who wins the group and gets the ‘easier’ passage in the knockout stages.

France manager Laurent Blanc has begun the mind games early ahead of their meeting with England in Donetsk on June 11^th saying England’s approach is predictable following Hodgson’s philosophy when managing Fulham to the Europa League final.

Blanc went on to say he knows England will prefer a 4-4-2 formation under Hodgson but will have to watch the friendly matches to see how England line up. In truth, it looks as though Blanc is playing a guessing game as England have actually favoured the ever popular 4-2-3-1 set up in the past couple of years – it remains to be seen if Hodgson applies this formation or applies his own stamp on the squad.

The mind-games didn’t stop there from the French coach insisting that France are no longer the power they were in international football and categorically played down their chances at Euro 2012 saying “France is not part of the great football nations anymore.”

England will look to start with a win and install come confidence into players and fans ahead of the Euro 2012 opener against France with victory in Norway at the weekend – and England are 11/10 favourites to win that match with a number of bookmakers. Wayne Rooney will not be involved in England’s first two group games so it is unlikely he will feature against Norway and the Chelsea players will be given an extra rest following their Champions League heroics last week. That means John Terry and Gary Cahill will be missing from central defence so Joleon Lescott and Phil Jones may feature with Leighton Baines at left back. The center forward position will be taken up by Andy Carroll or Jermaine Defoe and whoever starts is likely to start against France on June 11^th.

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