We take a look at the opening Group G World Cup matches taking place on Thursday and suggest a bet in each.
Group G have the heavy favourites for the World Cup, Brazil in it and they are currently trading at 3/1, with Serbia next best at 80/1, Switzerland 100/1 and Cameroon are rank outsiders for the Tournament at 300/1.
Brazil are understandably short-priced favourites at 7/20 to win the group, Switzerland are 5/1, Serbia are 6/1 and Cameroon 18/1
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SWITZERLAND v CAMEROON
SWITZERLAND
Switzerland had a tough qualification group, but they finished on top despite been up against European Champions, Italy who failed to make the World Cup. They had a good run in EURO 2021 eventually bowing out to Spain in the quarters, while in Russia 2018 they made it to the last 16.
Their warm-up match last week didn’t go well, they were beaten 2-0 by Ghana.
CAMEROON
Cameroon cut things fine when qualifying for the World Cup and having topped their group they faced a two-leg playoff with Algeria. They went down 1-0 at home, but they bounced back with a 2-1 victory on the road to squeeze through on the away goals rule.
Cameroon hosted and played in the AFCON earlier this year, but were knocked out by Egypt in the semi-finals. They have had a couple of warm-up games leading into this Tournament, drawing 1-1 with Panama and getting the same result against Jamaica.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
These sides have never met in an International match.
BETTING – Click here to bet
Switzerland 15/20
Draw 26/10
Cameroon 4/1
Suggested Bet: Cameroon, Total Goals Under 0.5 at 21/20
Cameroon have been finding goals hard to come by in recent times and I think that they are going to struggle to break down this Switzerland defence. For me it was a toss-up between this bet and Switzerland to win the game outright trading at 15/20 at the time of writing.
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BRAZIL v SERBIA
BRAZIL
Brazil, as mentioned above are Tournament favourites and they certainly cruised through their qualification with 14 wins and 3 draws finishing 6 points clear of Argentina. They scored goals at a ratio of 8 to every 1 conceded.
In the 2018 World Cup, Brazil went out to Belgium in the quarter-finals and they have since lost the COPA America Final to Argentina. Brazil were last in action in a friendly International in September where they hammered Tunisia 5-1.
SERBIA
Serbia topped their qualification group, which was no mean feat given they were up against Portugal. They failed to make it out of the group stages of the World Cup in 2018 and they looked impressive in last week’s warm-up game against Bahrain where they won 5-1 and they have 5 wins and 1 draw in their last 6 Internationals which includes a 4-1 home win over Sweden.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
These sides last met in the group stages of the 2018 World Cup with Brazil winning 2-0.
BETTING – Click here to bet
Brazil 5/10
Draw 7/2
Serbia 11/2
Suggested Bet: Handicap, Brazil -1.5 goals at 27/20
Brazil tend to be over-hyped coming into these Tournaments, but their results certainly justify the act that they are firm favourites and I think they can overcome any early Serbia resistance to win this game by more than a goal.
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Note: All prices correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
