Russia (38th) v Denmark (10th), Mon 21st June 20:00

Second spot in this group has been blown wide open after Finland beat Denmark 1-0 and then Russia went on to beat the Fins by that same scoreline on Wednesday. Theoretically, that means that the Russians should be the favourites to win this one given their form has been franked, but the market correctly has other ideas.

The Danes are odds-on favourites to win this game and after the performance they put in against Belgium, it’s clear to see why. That opening round defeat can be put down to exceptional circumstances after Christian Eriksen collapsed on the field and they had to play on and they’ll fancy their chances in this one. They’ve lost just five of their last 50 appearances over 90 minutes, as one of those was a friendly against Slovakia where a second-string took to the field owing to a dispute between the players and the Danish FA, another against Finland in the opener of this tournament and all the other three against the number one ranked side in the world, the Red Devils.

Excluding the likes of minnows Moldova, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Luxembourg, Georgia, Armenia and Kazakhstan over that impressive 50-game run dating back to November 2016, they still won without conceding in 82% of their 17 such victories, as 13 of those ended either 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1.

Russia looked off the pace in their opener against Belgium, but that can be excepted given Roberto Martinez’s sides quality. They did deservedly bounce back against the Fins in a hard-fought 1-0 victory last time out through Aleksey Miranchuk’s sublime effort, and that result leaves the final automatic qualification spot to the knockouts very much in their own hands. A slight reservation for Stanislav Cherchesov’s men, is that although they’ve been impressive on the whole in front of their home fans, they’ve lost six of their last seven winless trips to top-40 sides in the FIFA World Rankings since November 2018, only drawing with a Polish side in the midst of a horrible spell of one victory from eight matches (W1-D3-L4), as that sole win came against 158th ranked Andorra.

The go to man for Denmark now is Yussuf Poulsen. The centre forward has two goals from five major tournament appearances now and off the back of his performance against Belgium, we’d be surprised if he didn’t find himself on the scoreboard. Both those crucial goals for his national side have come as the first of the game and that looks the way to go again in this must win game for the Danes in their backyard.

Multibet: Denmark 1-0. 2-0, 2-1 @ 2.6
Yussuf Poulsen First Goalscorer @ 8