Venue: Polokwane, South Africa
The second match in Group C sees Algeria take on Slovenia in Polokwane. This will be on day three of the World Cup, June the 13th, at 13:30 local time.
With Slovenia and Algeria both very much outsiders both in the tournament itself and in the group, which also features England and the USA, this is a difficult match to call. Despite promising qualifying campaigns and Algeria doing well in this year’s African Cup of Nations, it is still expected that it will be the other two teams who will progress. It will be interesting to see, in this game, whether there is anything in these two teams that could upset England and America before they go on to play them later in the group stage.
Algeria, in spite of finishing fourth in the African Cup of Nations in January, are not one of the more fancied African teams going into the first World Cup ever to be held in Africa. In the top African team market for the tournament, they are behind even hosts South Africa. With a lot of attention on the African competitors, most of the money is going on the Ivory Coast and Ghana.
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Slovenia are alongside Slovakia as the biggest European outsiders in the cup, with both teams at 200-1 to emerge as World Cup champions. Algeria’s overall win odds are even longer, at between 350-1 and a massive 600-1, depending on the bookmaker.
With Slovenia at 6/5 and Algeria at 9/4 to win the game, with the draw also at 9/4, the bookmakers are showing uncertainty in calling this match.
The scoreline market also just slightly favours Slovenia, but not by a significant amount. A Slovenia 1-0 win is at 5-1 with an Algeria 1-0 at 11/2 – there is very little in it and betting wise it is one of the closest matches in the first round of the group stage.
In other bets, there is 9/1 on offer from William Hill for there to be an own goal in this match, 11/10 on a Slovenia clean sheet and 15/8 on a clean sheet for Algeria.
Prediction
With a game this close and teams who are both largely unknown quantities within the 2010 World Cup field, it is very difficult to say anything other than this could go either way. This game, if won at all, will probably have a low scoreline. For this reason, the prediction, tentative as it is, is 1-0 to Slovenia, which is at 5-1. Find the best odds at Expekt or William Hill Sportsbook for betting on this game.
