Weekend Review: Punters jump for joy while Jude heads England to top spot

Jude Bellingham’s first-half header gave England (1/2) a slender 1-0 win over Serbia (6/1) on Sunday evening, with Gareth Southgate’s men far from convincing in their first game of Euro 2024.

Despite being one of the pre-Euro 2024 favourites, England struggled to create clear-cut chances throughout, with captain Harry Kane only touching the ball twice in the opening 45 minutes while his sole chance came after the break when his header was tipped onto the bar by goalkeeper Predrag Rajković.

Jordan Pickford did well to divert Dušan Vlahović’s second-half effort over the bar in what was Serbia’s best effort on goal.

The final game of the weekend was one of the least exciting matches of the opening three days, with the tournament starting off with Germany (1/4) easily dismantling Scotland, who went off at 10/1, 5-1.

The host nation were three goals up before the half-time break via Florian Wirtz, Jamal Musiala and a Kai Havertz penalty – the latter coming after Scotland’s Ryan Porteous was shown a straight red card for a two-footed challenge on İlkay Gündoğan.

Niclas Füllkrug and Emre Can completed the rout, with Scotland’s consolation goal coming via Antonio Rüdiger heading past Manuel Neuer and into his own net.

Meanwhile, Spain’s (4/5) 3-0 win over Croatia (7/2) on Sunday surprised many given the ease at which the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 winners dispatched the 2018 World Cup finalists.

Of the opening seven games that took place between Friday evening and Sunday night, only one ended in a draw.

Denmark (7/10) and Slovenia (9/2) battled it out in a 1-1 stalemate, leaving England sitting two points clear in Group C.

Italy (7/20) and the Netherlands (6/1) also got off to winning starts against Albania and Poland , respectively, making it a fairly predictable opening weekend for bettors.

Kindred Group’s Ali Gill commented on the weekend’s results, noting Switzerland’s 3-1 win against Hungary on Saturday was the operator’s worst result and that punters fared well during the aforementioned draw between Denmark and Slovenia on Sunday afternoon.

Gill said: “After the Euros got off to a punters’ dream start on Friday, a high-scoring game with Germany the comfortable winners and big names on the scoresheet, the weekend was more of a balanced affair, although one we came out nicely ahead on.

“England’s less-than-convincing win over Serbia just about topped the turnover table, but came in very comfortable as our best result for the book so far.

“With just the one goal and Harry Kane having a quiet night on the ball, despite England winning, punters were short on other winning markets.

“Spain’s win over Croatia left punters well in the black, while Switzerland’s 3-1 win over Hungary actually came out as our worst result over the weekend. The only draw so far between Denmark and Slovenia was a great result for both England and us,” he added.

It was a similar result for bet365, with Steve Freeth highlighting that punters started well with Germany’s trouncing of the Scots, but by close of play on Sunday, things had improved for the firm.

The low-action affair between England and Serbia helped the operator, as did the Denmark result.

However, Wout Weghorst’s late winner for the Netherlands was far from ideal and Switzerland’s Kwadwo Duah’s strike brought his odds from 20/1 to 3/1 to finish as his team’s topscorer.

Freeth said: “If England were to win then we’d have taken a low-scoring affair with not too much happening, so a 1-0 helped enormously despite Jude Bellingham getting the early goal.

“Fortunately for us the goal-fest didn’t materialise, with the favourites in the end grinding out a win in a game that consisted of an all-time tournament low of just 11 shots – four of them on target, three corners, three cards and some below-par performances from some big-named players.

“It took us until the sixth game but we finally got a favourite beat earlier in the day. Hats off to Slovenia for bucking the trend with a well-earned point against Denmark as the liabilities started to build on the multi-side of things thanks to previous wins for Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.”

Elsewhere, Freeth lifted the lid on the operator’s offerings during the opening weekend of the tournament.

He continued: “Super Boost fans were celebrating for a third day running as England made hard work of seeing off Serbia – not that Gareth Southgate or the backers of the even money shot would be too bothered.

“Punters got off to the best possible start with our Super Boost of a goal in the first-half (3/10 – Evens) in the curtain raiser between Germany and Scotland landing on 10 minutes as well as the three most-backed scorers all helping themselves to a goal before the half-time whistle blew.”