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ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, WALES, IRELAND: LATEST EURO 2008 BETTING

Scotland are as short as 15/2 with Coral to top Group B following their shock 1-0 win over France in Saturday's Euro 2008 qualifier.

The Scots, who were 5/1 to beat the World Cup finalists pre-match and 12/1 to win 1-0, maintained their 100% record thanks to Gary Caldwell's 67th minute winner.

They head Group B with nine points after three matches, three points ahead of France and five in front of World Cup winners Italy.

Les Bleus remain odds-on across the board though to win the section, with Coral offering a top-priced 10/11.

It's then 15/8 Italy at Stan James who have Ukraine - who host Scotland in midweek - priced at 8/1 while the Scots are 10/1 chances.

There were wildly contrasting fortunes for the other sides from the British Isles though.

England, 1/20 chances at the outset, were held to a 0-0 draw with Macedonia, a scoreline available at 20/1 with Paddy Power prior to kick-off at Old Trafford.

Steven Gerrard hit the bar for the hosts late on, but the Euro 2008 favourites looked devoid of ideas throughout and deserved only a point from the match.

They still remain market leaders for the 2008 finals though, at no better than the 13/2 chalked up by Coral, and are 1/2 with the Barking-based firm to win their group and 6/5 to beat Croatia on Wednesday.

And while the honeymoon period may now be over for new boss Steve McClaren, he's not under anything like the same sort of pressure as Wales and Republic of Ireland counterparts John Toshack and Steve Staunton.

Wales lost 5-1 at home to Slovakia and Cyprus hammered the Republic of Ireland 5-2 to put the future of that pair in real doubt.

Both sides remain pointless in Group D and it's an 8/13 chance with William Hill that Toshack fails to see out the qualifying campaign.

And after Ireland's humiliating defeat away to Cyprus, some Irish fans have begun to call for Staunton's head.

A poll on Irish Football website, www.foot.ie, suggests that 63% of fans would prefer another manager to lead the Irish team, while 37% believe that Stan is still the 'man' to take Ireland forward.

William Hill make it just 4/9 that Staunton will be gone before the end of the Euro 2008 qualifiers, while he's 13/8 to keep his job until then.

William Hill's Irish spokesman Tony Kenny said "Although the Irish team were without nine regular squad players, the Cypriots are rated sixty places inferior to Ireland in the FIFA rankings. It really was a very sad night for Irish football.

"Straight after the final whistle we were inundated with requests for Steve Staunton to leave before the end of the qualifiers. We originally offered odds of 4/6 that he'd leave, but after taking several hefty wagers, we were forced to slash that price from 4/6 to 4/9."

# Saturday's results were great news for the bookies and the reaction by Coral's David Stevens was typical.

He said: "Not even Nostradamus would have predicted those five scores (Northern Ireland claimed a goalless draw away to Denmark in the other match) and although plenty of patriotic Scots backed their team to beat France, we more than got it back elsewhere.

"England's draw with Macedonia was an absolute skinner, as we cleaned up on the first scorer and correct score bets, while Northern Ireland continue to surprise everyone," added Stevens.

By Bettingzone.co.uk
Used with permission.

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