Venue: Nelspruit, South Africa
Match number four in Group F sees Italy, one of the favourites, take on absolute outsiders New Zealand at the Nelspruit stadium. This match takes place on the 20th of June with a 4pm kick off in local time.
Italy, the current champions, will be looking to take as many goals away from this game as possible, with it being on paper the easiest fixture in their group, which also includes Paraguay and Slovakia. New Zealand have, however, shown that they are not as easy to beat as many thought when they beat Serbia in a friendly last week.
Italy are of course the favourites to win this by a huge degree. The odds on Italy winning the game are as short as 1/9 with William Hill and 1.13 (-769) with SportsInteraction (US Friendly) This looks pretty close to a certainty, but a surprise win by New Zealand will get you odds as long as 20/1 with Victor Chandler. Even the draw is worth 6/1 at Bodog and Bet365.
This is a game where Italy are expected to pick up goals. 2-0 is the favourite scoreline in the correct score market, at 5/1 with Bodog, but 3-0 is the second favourite at 6/1 and even 4-0 is only at 7/1. Italy will be looking to get as much out of this as possible, so you can back 5-0 for the same price as a 0-0 draw here, at 14/1 with Bodog. The first New Zealand win in the field is at 40/1 with Bet365 for 1-0. There’s not much faith in the All Whites from the bookies here! They are also the least expected team to win the World Cup.
Di Natale and Gilardino are the favourites to put the first goal in the back of the net, both offered at around 18/5.
Prediction
This could be one of the highest scoring games of the group round if Italy are on form – I am expecting to see a total thrashing. The prediction therefore is 5-0 to Italy – at 14/1 with Bodog this is not a bad bet at all.
