We took the roundabout way to get here, but the top two favorites at Euro 2008 have survived all the way to the final. Germany was the 7-2 chalk at the start of the tournament, with Spain second at 4-1.

The roles will be reversed for Sunday’s championship. Germany had its hands full against Turkey in the semifinals, while Spain cruised past Russia in soggy conditions. It’s not the first sluggish performance by the German 11; as a result, they check in as +140 underdogs. Spain has played beautiful soccer for the most part and deserves its status as –180 faves.

There’s just one fly in the ointment for Spain. David Villa, still leading the Golden Boot race with his four goals, will miss the final after straining a muscle while taking a free kick against Russia. However, the Spaniards played brilliantly without Villa during Thursday’s semifinal, scoring all three of their goals during the second half. Achtung, baby.

The 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup is up for grabs. With 11 races left to go before the Chase, Kyle Busch holds a slim 32-point lead over Jeff Burton at the top of the driver standings. Yet Busch is the 3-1 Cup favorite on the NASCAR futures market. Burton is way back in the rear-view mirror at 14-1.

Busch leads all Cup drivers with four wins thus far; Burton has just one, at the Food City 500 in Bristol. However, NASCAR’s scoring system heavily downplays the importance of winning. Burton is in second place because he finished in the Top 20 in every single points race. Busch was dead last earlier this month at the Pocono 500.

Defending two-time champion Jimmie Johnson is 13-2 on the odds list. He’s 254 points behind Busch in fifth place, but the Chase format makes it almost irrelevant how far behind Johnson is – as long as he qualifies for the Chase.

The top teams at Euro 2008 are having nightmares. Italy was crushed 3-0 by the Netherlands, France was held to a goalless draw by Romania, and now Germany has lost 2-1 to Croatia.

Holland was the hottest property on the tournament futures market heading into Friday’s tilt with Les Bleus. But Croatia is closing fast with six points in two games, already enough to advance to the quarterfinals. That’s also enough to move the Croats to 8-1 to win the championship; Holland and Germany were tied at 5-1 at press time.

Portugal was upgraded from 9-2 to 4-1 following two impressive victories over Poland and the Czech Republic. The Portuguese have the consensus best player in the world in Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored the winning goal against the Czechs. But they remain the second favorites behind Spain, the new top chalk at 7-2. Spain is a mortal lock, as long as David Villa keeps scoring hat tricks.

Bet on Euro 2008!

Betting on the women’s draw at the French Open used to be simple: Bet on Justine Henin. The sudden retirement of the world’s No. 1 women’s tennis player left the doors open for sweeping change at Roland Garros. Saturday’s final pits the new No. 1 Ana Ivanovic (as of Monday’s upcoming rankings) against Dinara Safina, the sister of former men’s No. 1 Marat Safin.

Ivanovic was even money at press time. She has the larger body of work, reaching the finals of last year’s French Open against Henin and doing the same at this year’s Australian Open, where she lost to Maria Sharapova – whom Ivanovic will overtake for the top spot in the WTA rankings on Monday. Safina is the No. 13 seed at Roland Garros and a 3-1 underdog on Saturday, but her one career victory in three tries against Ivanovic was on clay at the 2005 Berlin Open.