Before the weekend's action, we made some Euro 2024 total bookings betting predictions for several games we felt would produce a high number of booking points.
Many Euro qualifier games are quiet affairs. There’s often a great disparity in quality in matches, or little to play for at the back end of the group stages. However, there are a significant number of matches that are a lot feistier.
So how did we do? With a yellow card worth 10 points and a red worth 25, this is how our selections panned out.
Euro 2024 total bookings betting – our picks
Armenia vs Wales: 60+ booking points (5/4)
Actual result: 40
A seismic, high-stakes clash between western and eastern Europe had very tempting odds to produce a feisty affair. In the end, it was more sedate than first imagined, with just four yellow cards. Of those, three went to the Welsh, adding to the disciplinary woes of the reverse fixture, which produced 95 points including a red card for Welsh striker Kieffer Moore.
The draw did neither side a favour. Most significantly, Armenia failed to get the win needed to keep alive their scant hopes of qualification. Meanwhile, Wales are surely all but consigned to the playoffs, and will be assuming that a miracle scenario doesn't play out, in which Wales defeat Turkey on their own turf, while Croatia shockingly fall to defeat at home to Armenia.
Hungary vs Montenegro: 60+ booking points
Actual result: 110
Although there were no total booking odds available for this game at the time of compiling the list, this one saw the referee experience a busier night than usual. Hungary were all but certain to qualify already, and twisted the knife with three goals after a false start to stub out Montenegro's hopes of a maiden tournament as an independent nation.
In their desperation to keep that dream alive, Montenegro took no less than seven yellows to Hungary's four. Hungary's previous clash (vs Bulgaria) had seen both sides reduced to 10 men, contributing to an 80-point tally that provided much of the reasoning for this pick.
Now it remains to been whether or not Hungary can channel their newfound energy more positively in the finals, after finishing top of their qualification group and making it to their third successive European finals.
Netherlands vs Republic of Ireland: 60+ booking points (15/8)
Actual result: 10
Ronald Koeman’s side secured a gritty and crucial 1-0 win in Greece last month to all but secure qualification on the basis of their superior head-to-head record against the Greeks. They duly completed the job against the hapless Ireland with a 1-0 win, and managed to avoid the wrath of officialdom, with zero bookings to Ireland's one, despite outscoring the Irish 13-5 in terms of fouls.
Their previous clash in Dublin saw six yellow cards, meaning that the 15/8 odds for 60+ booking points represented excellent value this time last week. But such is the unpredictable nature of football, it wasn't to be on this occasion.
See also: Who are the leading candidates to be Ireland's next boss?
