FOOTBALL TRADER
THE biggest shock of World Cup 2010 so far has undoubtedly been tournament favourites Spain losing to Switzerland in their opening Group H game. Vicente del Bosque’s side didn’t play badly, but they didn’t show their normal cutting edge and it was a big surprise to see them fail to find the net.
Honduras were widely expected to finish bottom of this group after just scraping through qualification. They only went down 1-0 to Chile in the first game, but they had their goalkeeper Noel Valladares to thank for keeping the score down. The wounded animal theory could apply here and I’m sure Spain will want to send a message out to the rest of the competition.
These two sides have actually met each other in the World Cup before, in 1982 in Spain, where they shared the points with a 1-1 draw. A repeat of that scoreline is 16/1 on Betdaq, but the most likely result, a Spanish win, is 1/8 with William Hill. However, I’m more interested in the 8/13 that Paddy Power offers about a Spanish win to nil. They are simply streets ahead of Honduras in terms of quality and with the Central Americans failing to score in five of their last six games, I’m happy to take the 8/13.
From a spread betting point of view, we’ve started to see some more high scoring games recently and this could be one where Spain really go to town. David Villa will be desperate to get on the score sheet and with Torres, Xavi and Iniesta all looking to impress, the floodgates could really open.
Sporting Index have the Spanish as 1.9-2.1 supremacy favourites and I’d be tempted to have a small buy at that figure. Similarly, I’ll be looking to buy goals at 2.9 as it would be no surprise to see a 4-0 or 5-0 scoreline; Spain have scored five or more goals in four of their last 11 matches.
There is no real need to have a correct score bet in this game, but if I was to plump for one it would be the 4-0 win at around 9/1. Things can change quickly at a World Cup and I confidently expect Spain to put their opening defeat behind them and it wouldn’t be a surprise if they still won the group.
POINTERS…
Spain to win to nil at 8/13 with Paddy Power
Buy Spain supremacy at 2.1 with Sporting Index
Buy total goals at 2.9 with Sporting Index