Spain v Republic of Ireland Betting Preview for Thursday Evening’s Euro 2012 Group C match from the Arena Gdansk, Gdansk.
The whole game is being shown Live on ITV 1 High Definition, with a scheduled 19:45pm (BST) Kick Off Time.
Welcome and thanks for stopping by to view our Spain v Republic of Ireland Betting Preview from Group C of Euro 2012, where we have provided you with the very latest team news, head to head statistics, best betting odds markets and our free betting tips predictions on the match.
A number of excuses came out of the Spanish camp after their 1-1 draw against Italy with players blaming the pitch as being the main reason why they didn’t win the game, but if that was the case then surely Italy would of said the same thing, yet nothing was heard from the Italian camp.
The reason why Spain failed to win that game was very clear in my opinion with coach Vincent Del Bosque’s decision to field a side with no recognised strikers as Spain found it increasingly difficult to get through the resilient Italian defence.
Republic of Ireland were easily beaten in their opening game against Croatia and I was very dissapointed at the performance from the irish as they seemed scared to push players foward and defended so deep, they gave Croatia the time and space to pick their passes which inevitably resulted in three goal going in.
Giovanni Trapattoni’s side desperately needed something from that opening game as with now going up against the world champions who felt hard done by in their opening game, I can only see Republic of Ireland being on the end of another thumping in this one.
Spain v Republic of Ireland Team News
Spain Team News : Coach Vincent Del Bosque will change this about for this game against Republic of Ireland and will indeed play a recognised striker in the form of Fernando Torres.
Cesc Fabregas looks like the player to give way to the 50 Million Pound Chelsea Flop and is a decision that will no doubt shock a lot of people what with Fernando Llorente more than capable of scoring goals.
Probable Lineup : Casillas, Arbeloa, Ramos, Pique, Alba, Busquets, Iniesta, Silva, Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres.
Republic of Ireland Team News : Coach Giovanni Trapattoni has a few players with minor injuries for this game with Shay Given, Darren Gibson and Richard Dunne all missing training with the squad midweek.
However both Shay Given and Richard Dunne will start the game and the only change to the side that lost against Croatia looks like being Shane Long coming in to replace Kevin Doyle up front.
Probable Lineup : Given, O’Shea, Dunne, St Ledger, Ward, Whelan, Andrews, Duff, McGeady, long, Keane.
Spain v Republic of Ireland Head to Head Statistics
Thursday night’s game from the Arena Gdansk, will become the 26th meeting between the two nations over the years and we have all the results of those previous matches listed in our head to head statistics table shown below.
- Spain Victories : 15
- Draws : 6
- Republic of Ireland Victories : 4
The last meeting between the two sides came back at the first round knock out stage of the 2002 World Cup where Spain won on a penalty shootout.
