Spain have already won Group B of Euro 2024 and on Monday night they look to complete the perfect opening stage of the tournament when they go up against an Albania team looking to make history in Dusseldorf.
Spain can do as they please in this match knowing that they will take on a third placed side in the next stage of the competition. An Albania will here would see them into the knockout stages for the first time in their history.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the BBC 2 channel in the UK with the coverage and build-up getting up and running at 7.30pm ahead of the 8pm kick off.
Albania
To be fair to Albania, when they were landed in such a tough group they could have been forgiven for feeling sorry for themselves and coming here looking to contain and hope something fell their way as they look to progress from the group stage but there has been none of that. They have looked to be positive whenever they have had the chance to and could easily have more than the solitary point that they have picked up from their opening two matches.
Albania have scored in both matches which not many would have expected of them when facing seasoned international tournament teams in Italy and Croatia and have generally brought something to the tournament, which not every team in this competition can claim. They have been exposed a little bit defensively but you would expect that with the quality of teams in this group. The question will be whether without much of the ball they can get forward enough to threaten the Spanish goal and claim the win.
Spain
It is job done for a Spain side who probably came to the tournament as not one of the major favourites to win the competition in a lot of cases but they have soon put themselves on the radar of everyone as a team who could easily follow up their success in the Nations League last summer with the big one this time around. They have already secured top spot in the group so they can mix and match their side in this game as they see fit.
I think the big concern over the Spanish going into the tournament would be whether their defence would hold up. It has done although it should be said that Unai Simon was forced to make five saves in the opening game which would be something those not yet on board will level at them. Perhaps another concern came in the Italy game when despite 20 shots it took the Italians to score the only goal for them. They’ll need to be a lot more ruthless in the latter stages.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account and bet £10 to get up to £20 in free bets! Perfect offer for Euro2024! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Team News
Albania are going to be without the services of attacker Mirlind Daku who was given a two-match ban by UEFA are getting involved in some derogatory chances. It would make sense in a must-win game for Armando Broja to come back into the side.
Luis De La Fuente has suggested he is going to rotate his side for this match to avoid getting injuries and fatigue. He would have been forced into one change because Rodri is suspended after picking up two yellow cards. Former Premier League stars Jesus Navas and Joselu could see game time here.
Betting
These sorts of matches are never the easiest to bet on when it is fairly obvious that wholesale changes are going to be made to the Spain side but doubts still exist over whether Albania will be good enough to beat them in any case. Usually you would suggest that Spain would just go through the motions here, and while I’m not suggesting that they won’t, there are spots in the attacking part of the pitch that have to be up for grabs at some point.
I’m not going to back Spain at around 4/9 and the dead rubber nature of the match for them stops me from getting involved in the Asian lines but if Spain are to win the match, as I expect them to do, then they are going to need to score a goal or two and the main maybe best value to score one could be the Real Sociedad forward Mikel Oyarzabal who scored four goals in the warm up games ahead of this tournament and who will be chomping at the bit for a full chance to show what he can do. Albania have to win this match to stay alive so at some point they are going to need to bomb the full-backs on and the 27-year-old looks ripe to take advantage of that. Over 2/1 on him scoring in this one appeals when you consider the rotation Spain are likely to utilise.
Tips
Back M.Oyarzabal to score anytime for a 2/10 stake at 3.10 with Betfair
