Venue: Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth, South Africa
The first match from this tournament’s much discussed Group of Death: Group G, is between African favourites the Ivory Coast and strong European side Portugal. The match will take place at Nelson Mandela Bay, kicking off at 16:00 local time on June the 15th.
This group will be one of the most keenly watched of the first round, with these two sides and Brazil all competing for just two places in the knockout stage.
The Ivory Coast are strongly favoured among the African teams, with some outstanding world class players like captain and Chelsea star Didier Drogba, Eboue, Toure and Kalou. They are 30/1 at best, from bwin, to win the competition outright, and are evens favourites with most bookmakers to be the top African team, despite being drawn in the tournament’s hardest group.
Portugal, who also have a notoriously strong team with Cristiano Ronaldo among the front runners with the bookmakers to win the Golden Boot, are 28-1 to win the tournament with most bookmakers including Stan James and bodog.com.
This is the closest match of the group stages in terms of the bookmakers’ offerings with several, including Blue Square and 888sport.com refusing to call it at all and offering 8/5 on both teams to win. The majority of bookmakers are offering 11/2 on a draw. The bookies who are offering a slight difference in odds between the two teams vary in both directions.
The odds on both teams to score are short, with William Hill offering 17/20 on this eventuality. A no score draw is seen as far less likely at 7/1.
The best odds on a 1-0 result are with Victor Chandler, who offer 7/1 for either team to win with this scoreline. For 2-0 it gets interesting, with Paddy Power offering 14/1 on the Ivorians and 10/1 on the Portuguese, but conversely Tote offering 9/1 on the Ivory Coast and 10/1 on Portugal – the bookmakers are not in greement on their predictions for this match.
Portugal are 6/4 to keep a clean sheet, with the Ivory Coast 15/8, both with William Hill.
Prediction
This is one of the only games in the group round that is hard to call just because both teams are so good. It is guaranteed to be a good watch for the neutral, and in fairness probably isn’t the best match to bet on.
Because of the fantastic goal scorers on both sides, this could be a high scoring match, but it would be strange if one team wins by a big margin.
Both sides are capable of winning this, but the hype around African teams in this first African World Cup and the climate advantage could give the Ivory Coast the slight edge.
