St. Jakob-Park, Basel and Stade de Geneve, Geneva are the stadiums opening their betting doors to the teams in Group A of the 2008 European Championships. The Czech Republic, Portugal, Turkey and joint hosts Switzerland will battle it out for a place in the knockout stages of the biggest international football competition outside the World Cup.

To spice things up both Betfair and Skybet are giving away free bets that can be used throughout the entire tournament.

The Czech Republic will be hoping to go one better than the 2004 competition where they made the semi final, eventually finishing third. The Czechs have a 100% record in qualifying for the European Championships having made it to the finals in their last four attempts. They will be amongst the favourites for the whole competition after winning their qualifying group and beating Germany 3-0 en route. With their coach, Karel Bruckner, retiring after this campaign his team will be looking for the ideal leaving present, the Henri Dalaunay Trophy.

Portugal only lost one game in their qualification for the finals and finished in 2nd place behind Poland despite some quite sporadic results including a 1-1 draw against minnow Armenia. Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo was in magnificent form scoring eight goals despite the team as a whole under performing. Brazilian coach has gone on record saying his team have to improve for the finals especially if they want to repeat their runners-up spot achieved in 2004.

Being the joint host nation Switzerland has had to rely on friendly games in their warm-up to Euro 2008. Poor results from their first three games saw their coach drop the team captain and reshuffle his squad. This gave the Swiss team a wake-up call and a well-earned 1-1 draw against Argentina and a 2-1 victory against the Netherlands followed. Coach Jakob Kuhn has announced that he plans to retire from the game after the finals and that he is aiming for at least a quarter final place as his parting gift. Turkey qualified 2nd in qualifying group C, behind Euro 2004 winners Greece. They had an electric start winning 4 straight games and conceding just one goal but then went on an equally disturbing run on just one win in six games! They then beat their nearest rivals for qualification, Norway, and then Bosnia to qualify by just a single point!

Recently announced as Turkey’s “Golden Player”, veteran striker Hakan Sukur will be looking to fire his side to victory in what could be his last major international competition. Two of our leading traders, Betfair and Skybet, are offering free bets that can be used for the Group stages and the knockout stage thereafter. Options are available on who will win their group, the top scorer and overall winner of Euro 2008 and many more besides.

Switzerland v Czech Republic Betting Preview.

Turkey v Portugal Betting Preview.