World Cup Spread Betting

One of the bitterest rivalry’s in World Cup football is going to be played out again this Sunday at 3.00pm. After yesterdays games England will square up to Germany in Bloemfontein in what will be the 5th world cup meeting between the two, the most famous been the final at Wembley in 1966 which England won 4-2. The most recent meeting between the two came in Italia 90 when Germany won 4-3 on penalties. It should be an interesting game with England showing some improvement from their first two games in overcoming Slovenia with a Jermaine Defoe goal. It should have been a lot more with England creating quite a few chances. Rooney hit the post but still hasn’t ended his barren spell for England.
The Germans topped their group after a 1-0 win over Ghana, the only African team to make it through thus far. England were within seconds of topping their group and Slovenia would have joined them but for an injury time winner from the USA’s Landon Donovan which then meant they finished in top spot and England came in second. I’m sure England are just grateful to have got through but it does leave them with a very difficult road to negotiate if they are to make progress. The chances are that they may have to lay another ghost to rest if they beat Germany, their likely opponents being Argentina. The USA will have a tough game on their hands when they take on Ghana on Saturday. The Aussies managed to beat Serbia 2-1 but the Ghanaians pipped on goal difference.
So it’s on to today and groups E & F are down for decision. In group E the Dutch are already through and it’s between Japan and Denmark for the other place in the last 16. Japan just holds the edge at the minute on goal difference. Indeed if the Dutch were to lose and the Japanese or Danes to win by a few goals, then either of them could top the group ahead of Netherlands. Group F is wide open with any of the four being able to go through. World champions Italy come up against Slovakia and Paraguay take on the mighty all whites who now have a massive neutral following after their exploits in the first two games. As Alex Ferguson says its squeaky bum time and hopefully should give us some good matches with a lot of top teams having to go out and get a result.
Meanwhile off the pitch Franz Beckenbauer is trying his damdest to endear himself to the English nation again. After his comments saying England had gone backwards to the good old days of kick and rush football, he’s now come out and said that England were stupid to not win their group and end up playing Germany in the last 16. He says the English hold no fear for the Germans. German coach Joachim Loew on the other hand says that his team will face formidable opponents in England and will have a tough job to get through. He said that England weren’t great in their first couple of matches but sometimes you start slowly and build momentum as you go. Let’s hope he’s right on that one. As for Beckenbauer, I think he has already given Fabio Capello’s pre match team talk for him. Another nasty little incident off the pitch has seen Algerian player Rafik Saifi allegedly hit a female journalist after his team were knocked out of the tournament. The Algerian journalist it seems had a falling out with Saifi about a year ago. A BBC correspondent who seen the incident said Saifi hit Asma Halifi across the face. She then hit him back and he then threw a drinks bottle at her which missed and he was then restrained by security personnel. Let’s hope that’s the last incident of that nature we see at this year’s world cup. Doesn’t exactly show a good example and Ms Halifi says she will be reporting the incident both to FIFA and the police. Proper order I would say.