We have a huge day of action ahead of us with 4 matches from the World Cup as the tournament gets into full flow following a fabulous Friday fight between Portugal and Spain. I'm keeping the stakes low in the first week, but I had a free fiver on a 1.1 draw in Spain v Portugal and 2 euros on 2.2 draw. Luckily, I popped 76 cents on a 3.3 draw @15/2 with the teams locked at 2.2 to earn a few euros. Stil, what a cracking game and I refer to my earlier post re Ronaldo. What a man. Beyond human.
I didn't have time to post my predictions for all the first round matches but so far I've got 2 from 4 with Iran's win over Morocco providing the surprise result so far. Here are my earlier predictions as well as my tips for Saturday. I will also tweet some of my accas for those who are interested. Thursday and Friday predictions Russia vs Saudi Arabia - Prediction 1.1- NO Egypt vs Uruguay - Prediction 0.2 - YES Morocco vs Iran - Prediction 1.0 - YES Portugal vs Spain - Prediction 1.1 - NO Saturday's Fixtures 12:00 France vs Australia - Prediction 3.1 Best Bets France -1 to win @8/13 France to Score 2 or more @2/5 Griezmann to score anytime @10/11 Preview France should have far too much for Australia and while I expect the Aussies to perform reasonably well, I can't see past a comfortable France win. I'm backing the French to win by more than 1 goal @8/13 and to score 2 or more @2/5 with Antoine Griezmann likely to find the net against relatively weak opposition. The Atletico striker was my pre-tournament tip for top goalscorer so he will need to score at least once here if he wants to get involved in that particular contest. You can get 2/1 on Griezmann to score first or 10/11 anytime. The Aussies will be strong in the tackle, and will do their best to exploit a French defence that has proved to be somewhat vulnerabe at times and I wouldn't be surprised to see the underdogs score but even stil, I expect the French to put out a marker and get their tournament off to a flyer. 15:00 Argentina vs Iceland - Prediction 2.1 Best Bets Iceland plus 2 @8/11 - 3 Stars BTTS @5/4 - 2.5 stars Messi to score first @11/4 - 2 stars Preview Argentina get their tournament underway against firstimers Iceland, the smallest nation to every play at a World Cup in what should be a really entertaining contest from Moscow. Despite the vast difference in quality and experience, I fancy the Nordic side to put in a real strong performance and make life extremely difficult for an Argentinian side that still seem to be searching for a true identity. Iceland really have performed sensationally since 2015, recording victories over Austria, England, Turkey (three times), Croatia, Ukraine and the Netherlands (twice) amongst others. While they might be small, Iceland are no minnow. Argentina have tremendous talent in the attacking positions but one suspects they might not have quite enough in the defensive positions to go all the way in this competition. Still, if Leo Messi finds his best form, anything is possible. I expect a really decent contest with the Icelandics offering plenty of threat going forward and I'm backing the Icelandics plus 2 @4/6 and BTTS @5/4. Certainly, you would expect Messi to put in a response to the Cristiano Ronaldo show of Friday evening but even still, this is a well organised Iceland that has lost only 5 of their last 25 competitive fixtures since 2014, and only 2 of those were by more than 1 goal (5.2 vs France and 2.0 vs Croatia). While this could well be their toughest match since that quarter final loss to France at Euro 2016, I expect a disciplined and highly energetic performance from a nation that must surely be pinching themselves to even be part of such an occassion. I'm going for a narrow Argentine win but it should be competitive despite the huge gap in experience. 18:00 Peru vs Denmark - Prediction 1.1 Best Bets Peru not to lose @4/7 - 3 stars Draw @ 11/5 - 1.5 Stars Preview I expect a pretty tight contest here with both sides fully aware that a defeat could well prove fatal in the quest for a qualification spot alongside likely group winners France. Denmark certainly have more experience than the Peruvians who are making their first appearance at a finals since 1982 but I do expect a decent performance from the South Americans who have looked strong in recent friendlies and especially in qualification. The return of captain and talisman Paulo Guerrero will cetainly boost the attacking penetration of a side who rely on Jefferson Farfan for much of their creatively. While the Danes posses a genuine star talent in Christian Eriksen, I expect the Peruvians to fight tooth and nail for a point that will keep both sides in the hunt going into match day 2. I'm going for a draw @11/5 and considering the price on that outcome was 13/5 when I did my earlier research a couple of weeks ago, we can conclude that the bookies are also edging towards the same conclusion. 1.1 is the call here with Peru not to lose @4/7 and the draw @11/5. 21:00 Croatia vs Nigeria - Prediction 2.1 Best Bets BTTS @21/20 - 2.5 stars Preview Our final game of the day sees Croatia take on Nigeria in what could prove another decent contest in an entertaining group D. The Croats are odds on favourites @8/11 but I prefer the value on BTTS @21/20 with Nigeria boasting plenty of attacking potential in the final third. While I do give the edge to Croatia, I don't feel they have shown enough consistency during qualification to be backed against a Nigerian side that came through their own qualification campaign unbeaten. With Croatia only keeping 3 clean sheets in their last 9, I feel the Nigerians have enough quality to make this interesting and while I am calling it 2.1, I'm only going with BTTS in this one. Comments are closed.
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