Paddy Power’s World Cup Blog – June 22

Paddy has enjoyed watching France during this World Cup – they’ve provided a lot of entertainment, but none of it on the field. He has the lowdown on all the best bets for Tuesday’s four games.

 

Poor old North Korea. I think there might have been a nationwide television outage back in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea some time around the 56th minute of yesterday’s game. After their admirable efforts against Brazil they fell to pieces and made Portugal look like world beaters. They’re not, so save your money.

Chile made hard bloody work of beating a resilient Switzerland, who were clinging on after a harsh sending off for Behrami. What’s happened to the referees, by the way? They were doing so well for the first week and then it’s mayhem. That guy had a real shocker and I’ll be surprised if we see him again.

Spain flattered to deceive a little against a far inferior Honduras. I compared their first showing to the profligate performances we’ve seen too often from Arsenal over the past few seasons and I’m sticking with that one. They may end up regretting not building up their goal difference. I’m still not convinced.

Now on to the first day of the final group match double headers. With a draw being good enough to put Uruguay and Mexico through from Group A, the odds of them sharing the points is an unsurprisingly low 4/5. I’d like to think both sides would be honest enough to go out and play for the win but let’s not hold our breath on that one. This won’t exactly go down as the most honest of World Cups.

I’m trying not to enjoy watching every crazy piece of footage from Les Bleus but I’m a petty man. Those guys have been more entertaining off the pitch than on it and they show more courage when they’re in their tracksuits too. What was Domenech doing reading out that statement from the players? Grow a pair man. All said, hilarious stuff nonetheless and it’s hard not to be tempted by the 11/5 on South Africa. The home nation have nothing to lose and will be desperate to finish on a high. France, seemingly, have nothing left to play for.

In Group B barring an unlikely big win for Greece, Argentina are through as group winners. It’s then a question of who goes with them. Greece may prosper from Argentina’s first two results if Maradona’s men are already thinking of the knock-out stages. This is a tough one to call because Argentina are improving and to everyone’s surprise the little man with the sculptured beard is proving a unifying force. Greece on the other hand showed some heart in beating Nigeria and having counted them out after their first game, now I’m not so sure. They’re 11/5 to win but they’re going to need a whole lot of luck to do it. Argentina are 4/7 but if they’re on form then the 17/10 on Argentina -1 goal could look a bargain. Messi still hasn’t scored but he’s getting closer and 10/11 to score anytime.

South Korea struggled with the passing and movement of Argentina but they won’t be facing a team of that quality in Nigeria. Like the rest of the African nations they’ve struggled to make an impression, which is a real pity, and the defeat to Greece may have just broken their spirits. Nigeria can still qualify if Argentina beat Greece and they beat South Korea but I think the organisation and hard-work of the Asian side will see them join Argentina in the second round.