Yahoo Finance Euro 2020: Punters put faith in England as favourites to beat Germany and reach quarterfinal
The England football team is the bookmakers' narrow favourite to win on Wednesday evening, with a 54% chance of qualifying for the quarterfinals of the UEFA Euro 2020 by beating Germany, data by Smarkets revealed.
Germany has been given a 46% chance of qualifying for the next round at England’s expense. The much anticipated clash will take place at 5pm UK time at Wembley Stadium in London.
This is England's fourth game of the tournament at Wembley, where they remained unbeaten in securing first place in Group B. Germany have also remained unbeaten in their last seven games against England at the stadium.
Germany recovered from losing their opening game to finish second in Group F, although they were just one goal away from going out of the tournament at the group stages.
The winners will head to Rome to take on Sweden or Ukraine in the quarterfinals on 3 July.
While their rivalry goes a long way back, many are of the opinion it matters more to England than it does to Germany.
"England's antipathy towards the German team is largely unrequited. That is not to say Germans do not care about playing England, they just have bigger fish to fry, usually en route to yet another final," according to a BBC report.
Bookmakers are seeing high volumes for the clash.
Sam O’Brien West from Smarkets, said: “England have been one of the frontrunners in our Euro 2020 Winner market since long before the tournament began, so it’s not too surprising to see they’re favoured slightly over Germany tonight.
“However, there are whispers suggesting that [England manager] Gareth Southgate may be opting for a back five instead of changing to a more attacking formation" due to which there is a 29% chance of a draw.
“That means there’s a good chance of extra time and potentially penalties, so a nervous night could lay ahead for England fans.”
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The Guardian, though, has said Southgate could switch to a back three for the first time in this tournament, mirroring Germany’s expected 3-4-3 formation."
The paper reported Germany’s players will take the knee along with England’s prior to kick-off, while team skippers of both teams will wear rainbow armbands to show their support for the LGBT community.
Sports betting website Football Whisper noted that England has only won two of their last seven meetings with Germany and both of those were on foreign soil.
"Even with the home advantage, we're backing England to draw the initial 90-minutes against Germany and expect this game to be settled in extra-time or via a penalty shootout.
"Germany edge the head-to-head record between these two nations, picking up 15 wins (including penalty shootouts), four draws and 13 defeats," according to Football Whisper.
England are also favoured above Germany to win the tournament at odds of 16% compared with 13%.
Meanwhile Spain "have leapt into favouritism" in this market after their extra-time win over Croatia, surging from just 11% to 22% overnight.
Over £7.5m ($10.4m) has been traded on Smarket's Euro 2020 Winner market.
Ahead of the match, Labour leader Keim Starmet tweeted that employees in the country should allowed to finish work early to watch the game.
Good luck to @England ahead of today's game against Germany.
Staff should be allowed to finish early so they can watch the match. #euro2020 https://t.co/dvDpfgtuFc— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 29, 2021
His comments come after the Trade Union Congress (TUC) also urged employers to be flexible in allowing workers time off.
It has also been reported that UEFA has no plans to take the semi-finals and final away from Wembley after concerns the lack of agreement over quarantine-free travel for officials could see the matches switched to Hungary.
