England 7-1 to bounce back from Euros pain at 2026 World Cup

Euro 2024 champions Spain are 13-2 joint-favourites to win the 2026 World Cup, along with France, while runners-up England are 7-1 to lift the trophy 60 years on from their only triumph at a major tournament.

The Three Lions missed out on emulating the 1966 World Cup heroes on Sunday when an 86th-minute goal from substitute Mikel Oyarzabal sealed Spain's 2-1 victory in Berlin.

England had kicked off the Euros as 7-2 favourites and Spain were fifth in the ante-post betting at 8-1, behind France, Germany and Portugal.

However, La Roja surged to the head of the market after knocking out hosts Germany in the quarter-finals, and before the final kicked off, they were 8-11 to lift the trophy with England 5-4.

Spain's success came as a relief to most bookmakers. Lee Phelps of Hills said: "We had huge liabilities on England, before and during the tournament, so we estimate that Spain winning saved us around 20 per cent of our total turnover taken on the outright market.

"However, we did see a large number of bets on both teams to score, Spain to win 2-1 and the total match goals, which gave punters some reprieve and meant it was a losing night for us overall."

Coral reported strong support for England to win the trophy at 11-10, and to win on penalties at 13-2, and Jude Bellingham was a popular selection at 4-1 to score at any time.

Bellingham notched England's first goal of the campaign against Serbia but failed to hit the target with his only effort in the final.

While England's defeat saved the UK betting industry as a whole from a costly payout, it was a painful night for bet365, whose customers had jumped aboard the Spanish bandwagon during the tournament.

The firm's spokesman Steve Freeth said: "We had taken 17.7 per cent of the outright bets on pre-tournament favourites England before a ball was kicked, with 9-1 shots Spain attracting just 8.9 per cent of bets, but bet365 customers were only impressed with one team on the run to Berlin.

"A 2-1 win for Spain in normal time in the final was not only our worst result on the night, it was our worst result of the tournament."

Bet365 also took a hit as Spain's star performers dominated the individual markets. Rodri, a 33-1 chance ante-post, was named Player of the Tournament despite coming off at half-time in the final.

Lamine Yamal landed the Young Player of the Tournament award, having been 10-1 at the start of the Euros. 

Bet365 had laid 18-1 about the brilliant Barcelona teenager winning the award as well as 40-1 about Yamal claiming the most assists at the finals. He set up Nico Williams for the opening goal in the final, taking his tally to four assists – double that of any other player at the finals.

Another Spaniard, Dani Olmo, had to settle for a six-way share of the Golden Boot as he finished the tournament level with England captain Harry Kane and four other players on three goals.

Olmo's two assists would usually have earned him the Boot outright, but Uefa tweaked the rules so the award was shared with Kane, Germany's Jamal Musiala, Netherlands forward Cody Gakpo, Slovakia's Ivan Schranz and Georgia's Georges Mikautadze.

Despite a disappointing end to the tournament, Kane obliged at 8-11 for favourite backers in the top England goalscorer market.

At the start of the tournament, Gareth Southgate's men could have been backed at 17-10 to reach the final and 11-2 to finish as runners-up.

Spain were 7-1 ante-post to be the highest-scoring team at the finals. That market was headed by England at 100-30 and France at 7-2 but the two favourites scored just 12 times between them as La Roja racked up 15 goals in their seven straight wins.

All but one of the 24 teams in Germany found the net at least twice so 20-1 shots Serbia were the lowest-scoring side with just one goal in three Group C matches.

England's goal in the final was a fine Cole Palmer strike from distance – one of 19 goals at the tournament scored from outside the penalty area.

Bet365's market on a player to score from outside the box proved popular with punters and Spain's Yamal and Netherlands star Simons obliged at 22-1 in the semi-finals.

Despite a healthy tally of ten own goals at Euro 2024, the average number of goals per game dropped from 2.78 at Euro 2020 to 2.29 at this year's finals.

Hills have cut Manchester City midfielder Rodri from 6-1 to 9-4 to win the Ballon d'Or after his outstanding Euro 2024 performances.

Bellingham, whose Real Madrid teammate Vinicius Junior remains the 5-4 favourite, was pushed out from 13-8 to 13-2 following England's defeat and Yamal is a 10-1 chance.

Spain were not the only team celebrating tournament success on Sunday as Argentina beat Colombia 1-0 in the Copa America final thanks to Lautaro Martinez's extra-time goal.

The Albiceleste also won the Copa in 2021 before their 2022 World Cup triumph. They are 9-1 to retain the World Cup in 2026, when the tournament will be co-hosted by the USA, Mexico and Canada.

Copa runners-up Colombia, who have not lost any of their last 29 internationals in 90 minutes, have been cut from 150-1 to 66-1 to be crowned world champions.

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