On Saturday June 7th 2008 the first game of the European Championships takes place with co-hosts Switzerland taking on the Czech Republic. The coaches of both teams have announced that they will be retiring from football after this competition so both teams will want to give their loyal coaches the best send off they can, making for some fiercely contested football. For this opening fixture, and for the rest of the championships, Betfair and Skybet are giving away free bets which can be used on a multitude of betting options. The Swiss team, ranked 48th in the world, will be playing in their third finals after qualifying as co-hosts and will hope that they can get through the group stages this time around.

Their first games in Euro 96 and Euro 04 both ended in a draw which was followed by two successive defeats and an early exit from the competition. Injuries have not been kind to the Swiss and they will have to go battle without prolific goal scorer Blaise N’Kufo who misses the finals with a groin and thigh injury. Much pressure will be placed on their injury-prone captain, striker Alexander Frei, who with 33 international goals to his name is third in the goal scoring charts for Switzerland and who would bet against him adding to his tally on home soil? A shock inclusion to the squad is star defender Patrick Muller who hasn’t played a game this season after a serious knee injury, leading pundits to question coach Jakob Kuhn’s selection policy.

On paper the Czech Republic should make light work of the Swiss being ranked 42 places above them and 6th in the world. However, you would not bet against an upset with so much at stake for either side. The Czech’s won the 1976 finals after beating West Germany on penalties after a 2-2 draw and almost won it again in Euro 96 but lost out to the Golden Goal in extra time, again against German opposition. The Czechs have quality all over the pitch but have suffered a double blow when they lost their captain, Arsenal playmaker, Tomas Rosicky to injury and legend Pavel Nedved refused to come out of retirement to replace him. Goals are never a problem with Jan Koller and Milan Baros leading the line but Baros must put a disappointing run of form behind him if he is to lead the scoring charts as he did back at Euro 2004 with 5 goals.

With millions of pounds worth of talent on show there is no better time to use the free bets available from Betfair and Skybet. Your free bets can be used to bet on the first and last goal scorer, number of yellow and red cards handed out, half and full time scores or to predict the correct result and score to name just a few of the options available.

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