World Cup Blog & Bets Day Nineteen

Well that was exciting wasn’t it? bet wise we landed the Dutch to win and more goals in the second half. I was right with Greece game going all the way to penalties but the pesky Costa Ricans prevailed. Gekas has had a bit of a mare of a World Cup.

No sooner do I put up a player as being the player of the tournament so far and he turns the whole thing into Swan Lake. You could not help feel sorry for the Mexicans. The Dutch kept at them but the manner of the loss in the end was heartbreaking. A great strike from Schneider but I have to agree with the Mexican coach. If Robben is booked for the first dive he might, just might, not do it again.

I remember when Robben first signed for Chelsea and I went to Spurs v Chelsea and was quite looking forward to seeing him play. My seats are quite close to the pitch and as was playing on the wing so I thought I would get a good view of him going at people. He spent pretty much all the 90 minutes rolling around the floor that day and it is horrendous to watch. People say it is part of the game. No it is not it is cheating plain and simple, but again the officials need to stamp on it. Book and send players off for diving, having wrestling matches in the box whilst waiting for corners and free kicks etc and it will soon stamp it out.

I am still coming to terms with Costa Rica being in the quarter finals and I will just say it again, THEY ARE RANKED LOWER THAN SCOTLAND!!!

Today we have the two European big guns left playing. Past winners France and Germany. France play Nigeria at 5PM and if they don’t go through I will give the first person to email me after the final whistle a free membership to the new FTS set up next season. (A great set up it is too!)

Nigeria are useless in my opinion, completely outclassed tonight and a price of 1.45 still looks a tad generous. France have scored 39 in the last 12 and kept 10 clean sheets in 14. The squad is fully available and they have quality players all over the pitch.

I can’t really say much about the Nigerians I just think they are a poor outfit and I certainly won’t let the 3-2 defeat to Argentina sway me tat they might be better than they are.

France should/will take this comfortably tonight with minimum fuss.

Value wise there is not much about the 2-0 is priced at just 6/1 and 3-0 at 9/1. France -1 is only 1.66 so really nothing to make hay with.

If (and it is a big IF) Nigeria take the lead I will lay them, or back France whichever works out best depending on the time of the goal.

I will back the HT score small of 1-0 and 2-0 at 3.6 and 9.2. If it 0-0 with 10 mins to go in first half I may also lay that in the HT CS market.

Other options are France to win both halves and France to score both halves and I may well have small interest in them at 3.35 and 2.36

Germany v Algeria is next up and the Germans should be too good for what has been a resilient Algeria side. Germany are efficient and have the knack of getting the job done against lesser sides and I expect them to do that tonight.

It looked to me like Germany played within themselves after thumping Portugal 4-0 in the first group game and just did what was necessary. Tonight they may well go back to that cut throat approach and try and blitz Algeria quickly. Of course if the game does go a while without a goal the Algerians will grow into it and are always capable of nicking one. I think the Germans will be aware of that and really try and get this to bed early. When you match up the personnel on each team it really is a mis match. The 1.14 Germany to qualify is a real reflection of what should happen.

So Germany are not backable for me at 1.34, I know those who like shorties may feel that is a buying money opportunity.

I will have a dabble on some big scores and hope I can get a trade from it.

3-1 at 13, 3-2 at 29 and 4-1 at 24. I will also have a tiny bet on Schweinsteiger to score first at 16.

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