Time: 14th June, 20.30 local time.
Venue: Cape Town, South Africa
Italy, the current World Cup holders, take on Paraguay on the 14th of June in the second match to be held in Cape Town, and the first match of Group F.
With rank outsiders New Zealand and low ranking European team Slovakia the other opposition in the group, this should be the toughest fixture for the Italians who will be looking to equal Brazil’s record of five World Cup wins.
Italy have been criticised for fielding quite an old squad, which did not do them a lot of favours in the Confederations Cup or the qualifiers for World Cup 2010, where they were unable to beat the Republic of Ireland, who ultimately failed to qualify after controversially going out to France in the play offs, over the two legs.
In spite of this, they are still one of the favoured teams entering the competition with best odds of 14/1, the same as for Germany.
Betting on Italy vs Paraguay
Paraguay are between 40/1 and 80/1 depending on where you look, with the best odds being from bwin and bet365. This makes them the third favourite of the South American teams after second favourites Brazil and fourth favourites Argentina.
The odds for this game favour Italy, with many providers such as Victor Chandler, bodog.com and Paddy Power offering 5/6 on a win for the azzuri. Odds for Paraguay are currently best from Expekt who also offer some really special World Cup bets for almost all games.
Boyle Sports and bet365 offer 12/5 on the draw.
In other bets, if you think both teams will score, regardless of the end result, William Hill will give you 5/4 on this outcome. For neither team to score, i.e. the goalless draw scenario, the odds are 6-1, so they are expecting some action out of this meeting.
In the correct scoreline market, for either a 1-0 win for Italy or a 1-1 draw, the best odds are 6/1. A Paraguay 1-0 is at 9/1. Italy winning 2-0 comes in at 7/1, interestingly, the same as a goalless draw, with most bookies offering the same for 2-1 with just William Hill offering 8/1 on this.
Italy are 4/5 on to keep a clean sheet, with Paraguay around 2/1 to do this.
This is one game where there is some potential for upset, with Italy failing to inspire since they won the last World Cup and Paraguay looking good in qualification with players like Roque Santa Cruz performing very well.
Having said that, with the relatively easy opposition in the rest of the group, Paraguay would probably be satisfied with a draw out of this fixture, where as Italy will want to prove their capabilities and go all out for a win.
The prediction is 2-1 to Italy, with odds at 8/1. Find more World Cup predictions for all games.
