407 hours to go (who's counting?) until Brazil and Croatia kick-off the summers World Cup so it's about time I had a good look at what bets we can make pre-tournament to ensure the most value and I have spent the best part of 4 hours looking at some stand out prices that are available just now.
It's never easy predicting the winner of the World Cup and all the usual big names are there, plus England and while Brazil are rightly priced as favourites, there are at least another 4 teams with serious ambitions to win the trophy. Argentina and Germany are surely the two biggest threats to Brazil while champions Spain are still packed full of quality and it would be idiocy to write them off despite the troubles of Barcelona and tiki-taka in the last 18 months. I also fully expect a big run from the Italians and they are my "dark horses" to make a good run in Brazil. Italy as "dark horses" you say? Well, it might be stretching it a tad to call the Azzurri "dark horses" but they are certainly a deep chocolatey brown kind of mare in terms of this 1 month long race. They can be backed at 25/1 which represents outstanding value on a team who have a midfield stacked with talent. Pirlo, De Rossi, Marchisio, Motta, Veratti and Montilivo to name but 5. Bearing in mind that this is a tournament likely to be played in stifling heat, possession of the ball will be vital and this Italian team have more than enough about them to be a tough nut for any team to crack. Getting out of their group will be their first major challenge but if they can do that as winners, then a run to the semis or beyond is entirely plausible. As for England, well they have really got some fantastic talent emerging into their squad with Sterling, Sturridge and Lallana the 3 that could catch the eye this summer. The English have been written off in this tournament and while I would be staggered if they managed to win it, I can see them joining Italy in the last 16 where a possible tie with Colombia awaits. A lot depends on the form of the perennially maligned Wayne Rooney and the impressions of the aforementioned new boys while Steven Gerrard needs to get over his Premier League heartbreak and Jack Wilshere needs to get over the constant breaks he seems to suffer on all of his body parts. I expect some decent performances from Roy's boys and look forward to seeing them play. Genuinely, even as a Scotsman I really do and if we see a team with Lallana and Sterling supporting Sturridge and Rooney it is quite possible England could surprise some with their level of quality. Quarter final defeat on penalties would do nicely. Argentina are the team I am most looking forward to watching and I expect them to blow away their group of Bosnia, Iran and Nigeria and it is here I am looking at a team with potential to be top goalscorers and with that comes the possibility of Sergio Aguero as top goalscorer. I have a feeling he could outshine Messi in Brasil and he is 20/1 to be tournament top goalscorer and the value certainly lies here with Messi best priced at 17/2. Spain are Spain and they will look to bore their opponents into submission with over 1000 carefully placed 2 yard passes over the course of a 90 minutes that tends to feel like watching Cricket or some other barely watchable sporting spectacle. In all seriousness, the Spanish can still turn it on when they feel like it but I have a feeling they will get no further than the Semi's on this occasion. Germany could be their downfall. Other teams that the bookies expect to be "there or there abouts" as some BBC pundit will invariably describe "The Germans" as, are Belgium, Chile, Uruguay, France, Portugal and Holland. I don't expect any of these to win the tournament but I look forward to seeing the Chileans especially and can see them eliminating the Dutch in what should be a great group with Spain and Australia while Belgium have enough quality to go deep in the tournament and are rightly classed as the official "dark horses" . Not really sure who paints these horses but I don't think a "dark horse" as ever won a World Cup, certainly not in the modern era. Ronaldo will lead Portugal in the group of death (I apologise for the multitude of tournament cliches I am using in this preview) with Germany, Ghana and the USA and if the Portuguese can emerge from this series of games, then they have in Ronaldo a man capable of literally(figuratively) anything (as Jamie Redknapp might say).and they cannot be discounted from a big run. He is the Maradona of this Portugal team who remarkably still have Helder Postiga in their attack, a man who seems to have been crap on the International stage for decades. Perhaps that is doing him a disservice but it is staggering that they have not produced a better foil for Ronaldo in all these years. Holland and France will probably end up fighting and going out relatively early while Uruguay could struggle to come out of their group but a lot depends on the fitness of a certain Luis Suarez. The Uruguayan's are aging and I don't expect to see them progress beyond the group or at best, the last 16. Chile likewise are going to be hard pushed to qualify past Holland and while I think they may well do just that, Brasil are likely to await in the next round and that could be that for a team everyone will love. It's going to be an absolute festival, even if the matches are boring and while i do not expect a goal fest or anything to match the glory of World Cup's past, I do think it will be much better than South Africa (thank god those horns won't be there) and despite the protests, the overspend, the monumental levels of corruption and bile that pollute the football and political world, the overbearing heat and the very presence of Joseph Blatter, despite all this, I do think it is going to be marvellous sporting/social occasion which everyone (that even includes girlfriends) can enjoy and I can't bloody wait! My early tips will follow shortly... Comments are closed.
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