FoG

POT 1 Germany 9/2 Spain 8/1 Netherlands 14/1 Belgium 16/1 England 25/1 Portugal 33/1 Croatia 50/1 Romania 100/1 Wales 500/1 POT 2 France 10/1 Italy 16/1 Switzerland 50/1 Czech Republic 66/1 Denmark 66/1 Bosnia 66/1 Austria 100/1 Slovakia 500/1 Iceland 1000/1 POT 3 Ukraine 66/1 Poland 66/1 Sweden 66/1 Greece 66/1 Serbia 100/1 Hungary 300/1 Scotland 500/1 Albania 1000/1 N. Ireland 1000/1 POT 4 Turkey 100/1 Norway 150/1 Bulgaria 150/1 Montenegro 200/1 Israel 500/1 Ireland 500/1 Slovenia 1000/1 Faroe Islands 1000/1 Estonia 1000/1 POT 5 Finland 500/1 Macedonia 500/1 Cyprus 1000/1 Latvia 1000/1 Armenia 1000/1 Belarus 1000/1 Azerbaijan 1000/1 Lithuania 1000/1 Moldova 1000/1 POT 6 Kazakhstan 1000/1 Luxembourg 1000/1 Liechtenstei

Ireland's odds for qualifying have been slashed again following a disappointing draw with Scotland. Irelands changing fortunes (click to enlarge) Ireland started off quite well even drawing with the World Champions on their home turf. Then the three most recent results saw their odds plummet, plummet and plummet again. First was defeat to Scotland, then a home draw with Poland and another home draw this time Scotland. The bookies are now quoting 3/1. In fairness to Ireland though, at least in the two home draws I feel they showed a little more than their opponents, but not enough more. So how can Ireland overcome this. The table shows Germany and Poland realistically out of reach. Scotland though are 2 points clear of Ireland, but their superior record against Ireland this campaign means that finishing level with them is no good. Ireland need to make up 3 points. That means matching all their results but beating one team that defeat them. Assume both teams beat

Bet365 will give you a bonus to match your first deposit up to €200 . Is this good value? If you read the terms and conditions you must stake your original deposit and the bonus three times before you can withdraw any winnings off your bonus. So for a €200 deposit with a €200 bonus that would require staking €1200. This is the equivalent of 60 €20 bets. You have 90 days to do this. A further restriction is that the bets must be made at odds of 1/2 (1.5) or higher. We can still work with these restrictions and hopefully have some money left of the €200 bonus after the turnover requirements. The chart below shows that the shorter the odds, the closer to breaking even or even making a small profit. The chart was compiled from my database of odds and results from football-data.co.uk which records odds from 2002. It has also been augmented with odds for matches collected from paddypower.ie for all the top leagues in the Europe and some from outside Europe since the beginnin

The situation for Euro Qualifying is straight forward now. It is beginning to appear that 2nd place is out of our grasp (Germany and Poland are playing the minnows of the group this weekend and should be able to consolidate the top two places between them now). It is a battle with Scotland for the 3rd place and hope to qualify as best 3rd place or by way of a play-off. That makes the Scottish game at the weekend a do or die affair. What of the seeding for the World Cup draw? The ranking of next month will be used to designate the pots and it will be good news for Romania, England and Croatia who all look set to make Pot 1. It could also be good news for Wales and N. Ireland who both have Pot 2 in their hands at the moment. Wales to beat Belgium would actually push them over the edge and into Pot 1. But what of Ireland.  Read  here  to see how we did have our destiny in our own hands before we failed to beat Poland at home in the last qualifier. Now, its complicated. The most poin