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Rooney or Lewandowski Can Top The Euros Scoring Charts
Wayne Rooney combines an excellent scoring record in international football with playing for one of the potential winners of Euro 2016. England’s record scorer had his best tournament in the European Championships 12 years ago but can finally deliver again during a major tournament. Robert Lewandowski scores at a rate of almost one goal every two matches for Poland and must also be considered for top scoring honours. French striker Antoine Griezeman will be a popular choice because France have won the last two tournaments played in their own country but he has scored just seven goals in 26 internationals.
The format of the Euros has been changed to now include 24 teams which is almost half of the football international sides in Europe. Eight additional qualifiers gives teams like Iceland, Northern Ireland and Albania the chance to play in a tournament but overall quality will be affected. The increase in the number of fixtures from 31 to 51 will increase betting opportunities but historical top scorer records are redundant.
The market to be the leading scorer at the World Cup and Euros is popular and one of the attractions is that odds are adjusted after each set of matches. A player can come from well off the pace with a hat-trick but generally in tournaments a goal per game is enough to win the honour. In 2012 six players topped the charts but with just three goals but with an added knockout round the finalists will play seven matches. This market has a habit of producing big priced winners and the shortest price outright winner since the expansion of the format to include 16 teams was Alan Shearer at Euro 96.
Bookmakers make a distinction between the top scorer and the winner of the Golden Boot. Fernando Torres won that honour in 2012 but five other players matched his tally of three goals. Three of the five 16-team finals have seen an outright winner of the title and all three reached the last four or the final. There was a freak in the 1994 World Cup when Oleg Salenko of Russia tied with Hristo Stoichkov on six goals. However, Russia did not progress from the group stage and Salenko scored five goals in one match.
There will be an extra round of matches this year so strikers could have an added two hours to score. That means a dead-heat is less likely and the participation of relatively weaker nations will produce more high-scoring mismatches. The maximum number of matches is seven which means the top scorer should finish the tournament on the five or six mark. Another interesting trend is that not one of the top scorers in qualifying for the last five Euros has been the finals tournament leading marksman.
Shearer is also the last player to score most goals in the proceeding season’s domestic league and then be the top scorer at the European Championships. He was also playing for the hosts so did not have the opportunity to score goals in qualifying. Shearer scored in four of the five matches England played in their own tournament and converted a penalty in a shoot out in the other but that did not count for the settlement of the leading scorer market.
England are generally fourth favourites for this year’s tournament so on form they should reach the semi-finals and play six matches. Of the top 20 players in the leading scorer market Rooney has the second best strike rate behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic and only the Swedish striker and Cristiano Ronaldo have played in more full internationals. He is the record England scorer having overtaken Bobby Charlton in the record books and he is due a good tournament.
Rooney top scored for England in qualifying but must deliver on the big stage again twelve years after he first made such a big impression on a tournament and England’s prospects. He scored four goals in as many matches in 2004 but was taken off and out of the game injured during the first half of the semi-final against Portugal. England have the creative players to set up chances and the experienced and mature Rooney can tot up a winning total.
Lewandowski has scored 34 goals in 75 matches for Poland but that’s for a team that has never won the World Cup or Euros. He plays for Bayern Munich, the best team in Germany, so is used to playing at the highest level in the Bundesliga and Champions League. Lewandowski is a world-class talent and Poland are well organised. The pressure of being joint hosts was too much in 2012 so a more relaxed outfit can create chances for their best player to build a good total which could earn Lewandowski the Golden Boot or be placed behind Rooney.
Exciting times ahead and BetFan have secured a pro football betting expert to guide us on all the the best bets for Euro 2016 so do keep an eye out for the full details coming very soon!
Best Wishes,
BetFan
