Euro 2024 best bets: Will Portugal's scorers feast on Turkey?

At 12 p.m. ET, Austria and Poland played out one of the best games of the tournament so far in front of a packed crowd in Berlin. Austria started quickly, just like their coach Ralf Rangnick assured us it would, and won the game 3-1 in impressive fashion. The game left Poland adrift on zero points, knowing that if France and the Netherlands played out a scoreless draw later that afternoon, they'd become the first team to be mathematically eliminated from the tournament.

Well, you'll never guess what happened. France and the Netherlands rocked up to Leipzig this afternoon and played out the dullest, dumbest 0-0 draw in recent memory and eliminated the Poles for good. Apologies to our Polish readers, and even deeper apologies to everyone who skipped the opening two matches only to sit through that France-Netherlands yawn-fest. They can't all be winners, folks.

We're closing out Matchday Two this weekend with three fascinating games from the bottom half of the Euro draw. First up at 9 a.m. ET is Georgia vs. Czechia, a Group F clash that represents Georgia's best shot at its first-ever tournament victory. Georgia looked great against a strong Turkiye side for much of its opening Euro fixture; Czechia, meanwhile, ran out of ideas fairly quickly in its own.

The middle slot is saved for Turkey vs. Portugal, one of the sleeper hit games of the group stage. Turkey has one of the youngest squads at the Euros on average and its teenage phenoms are out for blood; 17-year-old Arda Guler scored what just might be the best goal of the tournament in his debut match against Georgia. Portugal, meanwhile, is a trophy favorite, but has yet to show up in the way that fellow contenders Spain and Germany have. Will Portugal finally turn on the jets and join that fine company? Or will it falter like the French did and leave its tournament future hanging in the balance?

Finally, it's back to Group E, where Belgium and Romania battle in Cologne. With every other team in Group E carrying a win, Belgium simply must excel here if it has any designs on the next round. A loss will not mathematically eliminate it, but it will make it impossible for it to advance in first place — and that would give it a terrible Round of 16 draw if it did qualify for the knockout rounds. The Belgians went home in the group stage at the 2022 World Cup: could Romania play the role Morocco did then and make some early exit lightning strike twice?

Here's what we're eyeing as we close out Matchday Two:

Georgia's date with destiny. We love this Czechia side — Patrik Schick is capable of greatness and Tomas Soucek is a pot-stirrer of the highest order — but we don't think they're up to much at this tournament. Blame the press and the fans who called for former coach Jaroslav Silhavy's head after he let the team celebrate its Euro qualification at a nightclub: when he resigned, Czechia's tournament hopes went out the window. Replacement coach Ivan Hasek is far from an upgrade.

With Czechia looking like one of the weaker sides at this tournament, this game is Georgia's chance to finally make history and get its first tournament win. We love an underdog story and love how Georgia handled Turkiye's talented squad during Matchday One, so we're backing Georgia to pull off a win here at +375. 

Turkiye and Portugal's endless goalscoring options. This matchup should be wild: we've got chance creators like Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Goncalo Ramos, Cristiano Ronaldo, Arda Guler, Hakan Calhanoglu and Burak Yilmaz on the field at once. With so many attacking options to choose from on both teams (and two defenses who failed to keep clean sheets in their opening fixtures) we're seeing a goal haul from this one. We're backing this game to deliver at least four goals at +175.

Belgium's "snowball" effect. Belgium is a great team, but it's a team that struggles to turn around its misfortune: when things start going poorly, they usually stay going poorly. This game against Romania is a high-pressure, must-win situation for the Belgians and we worry that they might fall into old habits and underperform. (Romania, remember, is quite good: it thumped Ukraine 3-0 during Matchday One.) We're backing a draw here at +350 and already putting our fingers over our eyes for Belgium's final match against Ukraine next week.

Georgia vs. Czechia kicks off at 9 a.m. ET, Turkiye vs. Portugal kicks off at 12 p.m. ET and Belgium vs. Romania kicks off at 3 p.m. ET. See you there!