Welcome to July, I can’t believe how fast everything has flown by/ The Euros is 9 days away from coming to an end. We have the quarterfinals underway on this beautiful Friday. All but Belgium needed extra time to get to this stage, and it just so happened to be that Belgium went through in the most unconvincing of ways. The cash route on this slate will be to stack Spain and mix in Italy forwards and one Belgian piece to round things off, but the key here as it always is with RPS is to ship first place. Couple of ways to get there and will go over the potential paths here and hope we see some RPS logos at the top here, good luck all! EUROS25 IS THE PROMO CODE STILL FOR ALL SPORTS!
MATCHES
Switzerland (+475) vs Spain (-167)
Both Teams To Score: -120
Location: Saint Petersburg
Probable Set Piece Takers: Xherdan Shaqiri, Ricardo Rodriguez (SWITZERLAND) / Koke, Pablo Sarabia (SPAIN)
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Belgium (+230) vs Italy (+140)
Both Teams To Score: +100
Location: Munich
Probable Set Piece Takers: Kevin De Bruyne (BELGIUM) / Lorenzo Insigne, Federico Chisea (ITALY)
We have big news depending on the lineups of Italy and Belgium. They are the second game as well which will make things a bit interesting. Federico Chisea has been impressive in both matches he has partaken in and likely could get the nod here and take some sets with Lorenzo Insigne. While the status of Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne is unclear. Kevin De Bruyne suffered an ankle injury after a dirty tackle by Joel Pahlhinha, while Eden Hazard went out due to a slight hamstring strain and both are doubtful for their match against Italy which greatly hinders the Belgian attack and has me worrying greatly at how effective they truly can be here. Their one goal against Portugal was an outside the box banger by Thorgan Hazard that would be unlikely to be replicated and their second half showing while protecting the lead was abysmal and doesn’t inspire much confidence heading into this match. I hope we get more word on Kevin De Bruyne’s status heading into the early game as him missing would put me on Gianluigi Donnarumma more than Unai Simon a bit and go for the goalscorers on the Swiss side, but we saw that can be a dangerous route, but it is all about committing to a script for tournament purposes, especially in these two game slates.Â
If one team can hold a clean sheet it is crucial to find it, the weight of a slate can change completely if say Breel Embolo scores at 12% while 40% Romelu Lukaku and Belgium get blanked. However the floor of Switzerland is very much going to be non-existent, we just saw Croatia’s starting lineup combine for 20DK in the first 90 minutes they were on the pitch against Spain, and didn’t improve into ET, obviously the subs had a massive impact, but there is still significant concerns with the floors of the players who normally get there like Ricardo Rodriguez and Xherdan Shaqiri who will be only picked for their chances to be involved on goal. Rodriguez likely won’t be penalties anymore after missing his last two with the national team. Shaqiri on the other hand has the best scoring upside alongside Embolo and the braceman himself Haris Seferovic. Steven Zuber also contributed to the goals once again and the sub 5K price tag is very strong. Just remember it’s likely best to limit yourself to just one Switzerland player per lineup unless going for the slim chance of the combo hitting, you still get to run it back with Spain and go for the clean sheet in the other match.
While I am not particularly high on Belgium without De Bruyne, if we do get word he will start, it will have me swaying a bit towards him as I think he will go the distance of the match if he starts even with the ankle injury. He knows how important this match is and will be able to be very effective even with one working leg. This in turn gives more relevance to Romelu Lukaku as well as he would have proper service.Â
I’m high on Spain but so is everyone else. Pablo Sarabia, Ferran Torres, Koke, and Alvaro Morata all the forwards and midfielders for them, and even a cheaper Pedri who could have had 2 assists if guys could finish their chances. Just no need to really delve in on them, Koke and Sarabia being the floor guys and likely the most chalk of the bunch, while the others carry a bit of risk and shaky floors but magnificent upside for their price tags. Same goes for Ciro Immobile, Marco Verratti, Federico Chisea, and Lorenzo Insigne, but not going over the plays everyone else goes over, trying to go over those who could go a little overlooked and look for ways to make builds different.
The defender position will prove to be important as always, Thomas Meunier is too cheap for Belgium and will have a significant role down the right side in the attack, We also have Jordi Alba under 6K still and while he wasn’t effective as a substitute, he will be given a chance to make his mark to get involved with a goal and Jose Gaya was unlucky not to score last game and Alba easily could replicate that type of performance.Leonardo Spinazzola is someone who will be popular as well and arguably the best of the bunch, he picked up a dime in the win against Austria and has rifled six shots in the three games he played, will be great if they trail and could pay dividends if they score with his contribution in the attack.
