The football World Cup finals are rapidly approaching and online bookmakers have installed Spain as firm favourites ahead of Germany and Holland with the only non-European team, Uruguay, unwanted in betting. It will be interesting to see who comes out of the Spain – Germany match, almost a final in itself.
Spain are 2/1 to win the final, marginally ahead of Germany at 21/10. Holland are next in betting at 9/4 with Uruguay now out to 13/1. They are interesting odds and the closeness of Spain and Germany are reflected in their odds for tomorrows semi-final. Spain are slight favourites at 15/10 with Germany at 17/10 – only pennies in it, really.
In today’s semi-final, Holland are 4/6 favourites to defeat Uruguay 6/1. We have seen a few surprising results so far and a few controversial ones as well. Uruguay’s defeat of Ghana in the quarter final wasn’t without controversy with a hand ball denying Ghana outright victory – still, they missed the resultant penalty spot kick and a second during the shoot-out. Can Uruguay beat the Dutch? Holland have probably been the most consistent team of the four and, if they maintain that consistency, should have no problems moving through to the final.
Tomorrow’s game is a different story. Spain has had a history of losing its nerve once it gets to this stage of a tournament. Things may be different this time around – the team has a winning feeling having won the Euro 2009 tournament last year without dropping a game. Germany have been hot and cold in this tournament, and when hot I do mean hot. Beating Australia 4-0 was child’s play, coming out and beating Argentina 4-0 was brilliant – there’s no other word to describe their play that day.
If Germany can repeat the brilliance of their Argentina victory, they will romp home in this game. If they suffer the ‘game after’ blues as they did after beating Australia then Spain will send them packing. This will be a great game that will probably be spoiled by a penalty shoot out. Our tips – Germany to play the Netherlands in the final. For the record – online bookmakers have a Spain-Netherlands final at 8/5 and a Germany-Netherlands final at 13/8 – for the fans, a great game is assured with either of those two outcomes.