2022 Euros Group B starts Friday with a pair of exciting matchups involving some of the favorites to take home the title. Among legal North American sportsbooks with lines on today’s matches are BetRivers and SugarHouse.
Those sportsbooks have clear favorites for both of today’s matches on their 3-way moneyline markets. A breakdown of the teams’ recent forms both in the Euros and against their opponents indicates why.
Spain looks to keep up win streak against Finland
Even without Alexia Putellas, Spain is still one of the key teams in this tournament, and these two countries will meet in Euro competition for the first time. Spain has won its last four matches against Finland in all competitions, most recently a 5-1 victory in August 2018 in a World Cup qualifier.
Spain has only won three of its 12 matches at the UEFA Women’s Euros but two of those wins have come in their opening round of the tournament. BetRivers has Spain a -1250 favorite to take the points Friday.
This is Finland’s first UEFA Women’s Euros appearance since 2013 when they were eliminated in the group stage. They did, however, reach the knockout stages in their other two appearances.
Spain’s three wins at the UEFA Women’s Euros have all come in different tournaments and they could become just the second nation to win their first four matches in the competition in four different tournaments.
No team scored more goals in the group stages of qualifying for the UEFA Women’s Euros than Spain did, with the Spaniards twice netting 10+ goals in a match.
Despite only starting three matches in the qualifying stages of the UEFA Women’s Euros, Spain’s Esther González was directly involved in 10 goals, scoring eight and assisting two. She delivered a goal or assist every 24 minutes across those three starts.
Denmark and Germany face off with early title implications
Then we have a clash of titans between Germany and Denmark. This is the fourth meeting between the two in the UEFA Women’s Euros finals, with the Danes winning two of the previous three. Germany won the only previous group stage match in 1997, though.
The last meeting between Germany and Denmark in any competition came in the 2017 UEFA Women’s Euros. The Danes became the first team to concede the first goal against Germany at the Euros and then come back to win in that match.
Germany has won eight of the previous 12 UEFA Women’s European Championship tournaments, most recently in 2013. They’ve won the most matches and scored the most goals of any nation in the competition’s history.
Denmark reached the 2017 UEFA Women’s Euros final. The previous tournament’s losing finalists have lost their opening group stage match in the last three consecutive tournaments. SugarHouse lists Germany a -175 favorite in this match.
Denmark has only kept five clean sheets in 30 previous UEFA Women’s Euros finals matches while Germany has kept more than any other side and is one of only two sides to keep a clean sheet in more than half of their matches.
Denmark’s Pernille Harder was involved in 11 goals in UEFA Women’s Euros qualifying, the most of any Danish player. Only teammate Nadia Nadim matched her goal tally and only Sofie Svava registered more assists.
