An Oranje bloom is far from certain

THERE’S no getting away from the fact Euro 2020 does not come at an ideal time for players, who have just finished the most hectic schedule in their career and now face a tournament summer, writes Mark Langdon.

It won’t be the most fun bet you have during the tournament, but for those who put profit ahead of entertainment a sell of total 90-minute goals at 129 looks fair enough.

That averages out at just over 2.5 goals per game for the 51 matches and that looks a better bet than buying at 132. The great hope for buyers is that VAR goes mad with penalties and Spreadex quote the total spot-kicks at 14-15 in regulation time.

Five replacements will be available for managers to use in the 90 minutes and total sub goals are at 16.5-17.5, while yellow cards are trading at 173-181 and reds at 6.75-7.25.

Netherlands have been waiting seven years to return to a tournament and they look to have a lovely draw with a home group against Ukraine, Austria and North Macedonia followed by a relatively nice early knockout path if events pan out as expected.

The team, however, looks poor on paper and there’s hardly anything to get excited about apart from Memphis Depay.

A sell of Netherlands on the tournament 100 index at 30 (100 winner, 75 runner-up, 50 semi-finalists, 25 quarter-finals and ten for a last-16) is one option, as is a sell of their group points at 6.4, which is preferred.

North Macedonia are seen as the whipping boys and yet the finals debutants recently won away to Germany, while inconsistent Ukraine have beaten Spain and drawn with France this season.

Austria have scored in eight of their nine competitive games this season and it’s worth bearing in mind no team collected more than seven group points at the last Euros.