French fall from bookies’ favour

France’s indifferent form in two matches has kept the bookies busy — and could make the punters very happy. Thursday night’s ...

France’s indifferent form in two matches has kept the bookies busy — and could make the punters very happy. Thursday night’s draw against Croatia saw the odds against them retaining the Henri Delaunay Trophy lengthen overnight from 2/1 to 5/2. And a long fall from the 9/4 you got for them after the win over England.

And though critics may have felt the 3-0 scoreline against Switzerland flattered the English, the bookies didn’t. You can now get 11/2 odds on Beckham’s team, compared with 6/1 a day ago and 8/1 after being Zidaned.

The greatest fall has been by the Dutch; 8/1 joint fourth favourites before they played Germany, they now languish at 11/1. As, in fact, do group-mates Germany and the Czechs. Meanwhile Italy stay just behind England on 6/1 but should change after Friday night’s match — question is, will they totter without Totti? Strangely, the bookies are still offering 5/1 for a France-Italy final; indeed, the top six bets on likely finalists all feature France, their other opponents, in descending order of probability, being England, Spain, the Czechs, Holland, Portugal and Germany.

And if France don’t make it, you can bet on Spain to take their place, against Italy, at 14/1.

(ENS, with data from labrokes.com)