Germany and Paraguay clash in the Fifa World Cup Round of 32 in Boston on Monday and we take a look at selected betting markets available to punters.
Germany:
Germany won 2 and lost 1 of their Group E matches and finished top of the quartet ahead of Ivory Coast who also finished with 6 points. Ecuador also qualified from third place with 4 points and with 1 point Curacao were eliminated.
A 2-1 defeat to Ecuador in their final group match in New Jersey ended Germany’s perfect start to the tournament. It was a dead rubber for Germany but they still took a second minute lead through Leroy Sane. Ecuador, who needed to win to qualify were level shortly afterwards and then secured victory on 77 minutes.
Germany’s 2-1 win over Ivory Coast in Toronto secured top spot in the group after 2 matches. That victory was achieved the hard way as Ivory Coast took a 30th minute lead and the Germans needed two second half goals from substitute Deniz Undav to claim the points with the winner coming in the 94th minute.
Germany took on the group’s minnows Curacao in Houston in their opening match and they came through with a 7-1 win. They led 3-1 at half time and Havertz scored twice, one a penalty whilst the other goals came from Nmecha, Schlotterbeck, Musiala, Brown and Undav.
Paraguay
Paraguay recovered from a nightmare start to progress from Group D. USA topped that group with 6 points, Australia were runners up on 4 points with Paraguay third, also with 4 points. Turkey with 3 points were eliminated.
Paraguay played put a dour 0-0 draw with Australia in their final group match in San Francisco, a result which suited both nations in terms of moving them up to 4 points and a place in the Round of 32.
Paraguay put themselves in contention for a Round of 32 place with a 1-0 win over Turkey in San Francisco in their second group match. They took the lead through Matias Galarza after just 64 seconds and it was largely backs to the wall for the remainder of the game and especially so after Miguel Almiron was sent off for “covering his mouth” on the stroke of half time.
Paraguay’s opening game against co-hosts USA in Los Angeles was something of a disaster as they crashed to a 4-1 defeat. An own goal from Damian Bobadilla on just 7 minutes had USA off to a flyer and Paraguay were 3-0 down by half time. They pulled a goal back through Mauricio on 73 minutes but conceded again deep into injury time.
The Betting (Regulation time unless stated otherwise)
Germany are priced at around 4/10 to win the game with the draw available at 7/2 and Paraguay can be backed at around 7/1.
A game of 3 goals or more is priced at 7/10 and its 21/20 for both teams to score
Germany are 17/20 to lead at half time and full time and they are 9/10 to keep a clean sheet
Paraguay can be backed at 36/10 to qualify for the next round by any method of victory
The Verdict:
I think Germany can be excused their defeat last time out as they had already secured top position in the group. I’m not sure they will have things all their own way but I will go with Germans to edge this by a single goal margin in regulation time.
Bets: Winning margin Germany by 1 goal exactly at 26/10 with Lucky Fish
Note, odds are subject to change