The slow and steady path towards the 2020 Euros continued over the weekend and one Neds punter almost had an absolute field day. ALMOST.
Heading into the weekend, our punter combined a couple of shorties with an obvious knowledge of the world game. He selected seven legs in total, for a combined price of $202.97. With his $8 stake applied, our punter was looking down the barrel of a potential $1623.76.
What a Sunday session that could have been.
To kick off the multi, our punter scoured the competition sheet and returned his two short selections; something we all do to build a bit of early confidence – Wales to beat Azerbaijan at $1.25 and Austria to beat Latvia for $1.06. 
It was time to begin filling out the ticket with some proper value.
Three win-draw-win selections were added. 2018 World Cup finalists Croatia to beat Slovakia at $2.30, Russia to beat Scotland on the road at $2.50 and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal to beat Serbia at $2.20.
It was at this point that our punter added his boldest selection to the ticket. A correct score leg of England to beat Bulgaria 4-0 at a very juicy $7. – wow.
To increase the price just that little bit more, our punter took one final look and dug deeper into the markets for arguably the weekend’s surest thing; France vs Albania.
There is no denying that Antoine Griezmann is one of the world’s most prolific goal scorers. The bloke knocks them in for fun week in, week out and was due to step out opposite a defence that is noticeably weaker than anything that he encounters for Barcelona.
Our punter confirmed his final leg – Griezmann anytime Goalscorer at $1.73.
It took France only eight minutes to get onto the scoresheet, but it wasn’t Griezmann. It was Kingsley Coman who finished off a beautiful through-ball, while Olivier Giroud made it two only 20 minutes later.
It was less than ten minutes later that Lucas Hernandez was hacked down in the box and our punter appeared to have it all sorted out.
Up stepped Griezmann to take the penalty. Something he’s done to effect thousands of times previously. To add insult to injury, the ball wasn’t saved. It didn’t even sail over the top. The ball hit the underside of the crossbar and deflected back into the field of play. 
We all know what happened from there. France scored another two, but neither were the man we were looking for. So close, but so agonizingly far.
