Venue: Rustenburg, South Africa
The fourth match in tricky Group D takes place in Rustenburg on the 19th of June, with a 16:00 kick off (local time). This is where and when Ghana and Australia will meet at the World Cup.
Ghana have had some injury problems, with star player Michael Essien ruled out with an injury, and Australia have failed to impress in their warm ups, losing 3-1 to the USA.
Ghana, who have the advantage of the climate and local support in Africa, are the favourites to win this game, with odds at around 6/5. Australia are 12/5 to win with BetFred, and the draw is 23/10 – none of these outcomes offer long odds, the trickiness of the group being reflected in the bookies’ prices. Sportsbook.com (US Friendly) does also have some good odds on this outcome.
Prince Tagoe and Asamoah Gyan are the joint favourites to put the first goal in, William Hill, who are already offering first goal scorer bets for this round of matches, are offering 4/1 on both players. Sully Muntari, who is still in doubt with injury, is 8/1.
The correct score market for this game favours a 1-0 win to Ghana, which Bodog offer 11/2 for. A 1-1 draw is at 5/1 with both Bodog and Bet365. Australia 1-0 is the next shortest odds, at 13/2. This shows that while Ghana are the favourites the bookmakers are not calling this one too strongly.
Prediction
This should be an interesting game. While Ghana should have a very slight edge here, they are missing key players, and Australia will be very keen to get through this tough group which also contains Serbia and Germany. I think there is a strong change this will end in a score draw, so the prediction here is 2-2, which will get you odds of 18/1 with Bet365.
