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Sérgio Conceição will take the helm of Braga in this season, and he also has a stronger roster at his disposal, as reinforcements to the last year's team cost over 9 mil. Euros. They played six matches in the preseason with a 4-1-1 score, and seem ready, especially when facing the weakest team in the league. The odds might seem low, but even during their last year's disappointing season, a rare one in which they did not end close to the top, Braga had odds similar to these in at least half their games. Compared to lat year, Braga are better, and the opponents... were in the third league only recently. Boavista are back in the 1st league, but their roster is anything but 1st league. Last year we saw with Olhanense how hard it is to be at least second to last when you change almost the entire roster, and Olhanense back then had players brought in from the Italian league.
Boavista spent a few seasons fruitlessly trying to get at least to the second league, and I feel we can still look upon them as a third league club with a bunch of new, not too good players, few of whom have first league experience, and who have yet to mesh into a competitive team. Preparation games were supposed to achieve that, but they seem to have avoided those. They played only three and lost to Feirense (0:2), played 0:0 against Setubal, and lost against Sporting 1:3, only that was Sporting's B team. They will try to defend today, but Braga's offense consisting of Eder, Rafo, Alan, Pardo, Tibo, Ruben Micael is too strong for a "third league" defense, and I expect a sure win, as with the home ground advantage there should be at least a two goal difference, and we should get a confirmation of that. Details

I opted for Montanse yesterday, and I 'm going to do the same today. He's had a huge test for his mental strength against Gimeno-Traver yesterday and passes it successfully. His game is better than it was in Umag and Kitzbuhel. The Spaniard got better, and that's more than obvious. Also, he's better than Starace, especially at this moment. And this is Starace's first good result this season. I can't forget the last six months because of one good win (Lorenzi). On top of that, the Spaniard has a 7-3 record against him, and he beat Starace a week ago in San Marino. What could have changed since then? Not much. He is the better player, and Starace seemed more tired after his semi final match. Details

Spain should beat Russia earlier today, which should mean that the Danes can lose by up to 9 goals and still win the second position. if Spain lose, they would have to win. I think this will be an easy job for them, I expect a win by 6-7 goals and some time off for the key players.
They beat Russia by 17 goals. The Danish coach said it was the best game by this generation, but truth be told, Russia fell apart in the end, and didn't play defense at all. This margin is set today because Macedonia lost to Spain convincingly, but the officials had a lot to do with that final score (-15). This Macedonia are a tough nut to break, their pace is slow, which can cause a dramatic finish. A win would probably not help them, but that doesn't mean they don't want it. I think Macedonia won't lose this by more than 10 goals, it might be around five even. Their top players will be in the game as long as they stand a chance, while Henriksen is expected to reshuffle the line up a bit. Details

Basing your judgment on the fact that both teams had similar results against Hungary and Romania, respectively, would be a big mistake. The French were destroyed by individual quality against Romania, which the Croatians don't have. They have a collective, just like the French, only judging from their performance, a weaker one by far. Quintin has a far wider selection of players at his disposal, and we must not forget Croatia are missing Radoš, marked as the key player of this team by the selector. As he is the play-maker of the Croatian team, a position already thinly populated in Horvat's team, it seems rather impossible that they can win a match of such importance without him. We must also add that the French defense looks better, and they have excellent cooperation between their middle backs and pivot, a link-up that troubled the Croatians greatly in their opening match against Hungary. Details