5 Tips For Monday’s Euro 2020 & Copa America Action - 21/6/21

Belgium take on Finland in Group B tonight with the Red Devils having already qualified for the Round of 16, whilst the Finns currently sit in third place on three points, having earned a victory against Denmark on matchday one.

Finland come into this game on the back of a narrow 1-0 defeat to Russia on matchday two, with all of their points coming against Denmark in their opener, as a second-half header from Joel Pohjanpalo saw them take all three points, this goal was the Finns only shot in the match, in what turned out to be their first-ever win at a major tournament.

Roberto Martinez’s side come into this match as huge favourites, having brushed aside both Russia and Denmark 3-0 and 2-1. In Belgium’s latest win which came against the Danes, it was evident that the introduction of Kevin De Bruyne was crucial, as the Manchester City man made the assist for Thorgan Hazard’s equaliser, as well as scoring the winning goal, having come on at half-time.

It is likely that both Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard will start against Finland on matchday three, due to not starting either of the Red Devil’s first two group matches.

The other match in Group B sees two co-hosts in Russia and Denmark both battling to stay in Euro 2020.

At present, Russia are second in Group B, having beaten Finland on matchday two via a goal from Atalanta midfielder Aleksei Miranchuk, whilst Denmark have lost against both Finland and Belgium.

Denmark to win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 is priced at 13/8 which is fair due to the fact that the Danes could’ve arguably won both of their matches against Finland and Belgium, having conceded to Finland’s only shot on goal on matchday one compared to their 22 efforts, as well as having 21 attempts at goal to Belgium’s six last time out.

All of Denmark’s last four matches have seen three goals or less scored in them, having drawn 1-1 with Germany and beaten Bosnia & Herzegovina 2-0 earlier this month, whilst Russia came into this tournament on the back of a 2-1 loss to Slovakia in World Cup qualifying and looked far from convincing against Finland last time out.

The Netherlands face North Macedonia in what is effectively a dead rubber match in Group C, but Frank De Boer has committed to fielding a strong line-up as he said in his recent press conference that he will make just two changes from his side’s 2-0 victory over Austria last time out.

The Dutch have been very impressive so far this tournament, having scored five goals in their opening two matches in 3-2 and 2-0 wins against Ukraine and Austria as mentioned above. Meanwhile, North Macedonia have given this competition their all on their first outing and have ultimately fallen short, succumbing to 3-1 and 2-1 defeats against Austria and Ukraine.

Memphis Depay is the player in focus for this match. The Barcelona forward has scored 27 goals in 66 matches for his national side, scoring two braces in his last five matches for De Boer’s side, against Gibraltar and Scotland, with the latter being a warmup match for Euro 2020.

Depay also had a very impressive season at Lyon coming into this tournament, as the 27-year-old scored 20 and assisted 12 goals in 37 league matches.

Group C’s other match sees Ukraine take on Austria in what could be a winner takes all scenario, as whichever side earns all three points will guarantee their place in the last 16, whilst the other would be made to sweat about the prospect of having to qualify as one of the best third-placed teams.

As mentioned above, Ukraine were beaten 3-2 on matchday one by the Netherlands, as well as beating North Macedonia 2-1 with Gent striker Roman Yaremchuk scoring in both games. Austria earned a 3-1 victory over North Macedonia in their first match thanks to late goals by Michael Gregoritsch and Marko Arnautović, before being beaten 2-0 by the Netherlands in a game where they showed very little attacking impetus.

Yaremchuk is the player that we are looking at for this tip, as the 25-year-old has scored in four of his last five international matches against Kazakhstan, Cyprus, the Netherlands and North Macedonia, which has seen the former Dynamo Kyiv man sit just one goal behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Patrick Schick on the scorers’ charts at Euro 2020 with two goals.

The last match on this list of tips comes from Copa America where Uruguay face Chile, with Óscar Tabárez’s side knowing that anything but a win will put them under huge pressure In their bid to qualify from Group A, having narrowly lost 1-0 to Argentina on matchday one.

Chile have managed to earn four points from their first two matches, having drawn 1-1 with Argentina on matchday one, as an Eduardo Vargas goal cancelled out Lionel Messi’s opener, whilst the Chilean’s also earned themselves a narrow 1-0 win against Bolivia last time out, as Blackburn Rovers striker Ben Brereton scored the only goal of the game.

Uruguay have won their last two matches against Chile, beating them 2-1 in South American World Cup qualifiers back in October last year thanks to goals from Luis Suarez and Maxi Gomez, whilst narrowly scraping a 1-0 victory against Chile at the last Copa America in 2019, as Manchester United striker Edinson Cavani scored the only goal of the game with just eight minutes to go.