Venue: Tshwane/Pretoria, South Africa
The fourth match in Group E is to kick off on June the 19th at 20:30 local time in Pretoria, and sees Cameroon meet Denmark.
Whilst very different in culture and football style, the teams here are seen as pretty evenly matched. Denmark seem to be very slightly favoured by the bookmakers, though you can get 6/4 on either team to win from most bookmakers, Expekt put Cameroon slightly further out and offer the best price on them at 7/4. This isn’t a bad bet considering that the teams are close in ability and expectation, and yet Cameroon have the African advantage. For US players, Sportsbook.com offers the best odds and most betting alternatives.
A draw here will get you 23/10, the best price on offer, from Ladbrokes – most bookmakers offer 2/1. Again, this is quite a good price considering there isn’t much to suggest either team has this game in the bag. In the correct score market, a 1-1 draw is the favourite outcome, with Bodog (US Friendly) offering 11/2, whereas a 0-0 draw will get you 7/1.
1-0 to Denmark is the second favourite scoreline in most books, and it will fetch you 13/2, again Bodog offer the best price here. 1-0 to Cameroon is actually at 6/1 with Bodog who are one of a couple of bookmakers who seem to rate Cameroon over Denmark, but Victor Chandler will give you 13/2 on this.
William Hill already offer first goal scorer odds for the group stage games, and for this match the joint favourites are Samuel Eto’o, Rajko Lekic, Nicklas Bendtner and Jon Dahl Tomasson – all offered at 5/1 with William Hill.
Prediction
Here is a game that could easily go either way, and one of the few matches in this round that is difficult to call. On the one hand the Danes have some good, solid players and a good if not amazing level of skill. On the other, Cameroon have a bit of a tradition of being dark horses that can upset groups, and they do have the advantage of a little more support and a better acclimatisation in South Africa. I think there will be goals, but in this case I am going with the bookies – a 1-1 draw. This will fetch you 11/2 on the correct score market or 2/1 just for the draw.
