World-Cup Betting: Spain & Brazil rank as the early favourites !
Football betting experts go with Brazil and Spain as the early favourites to win the Football World Cup 2010 in Southafrica !
The World-Cup qualification phase is behind us and all the usual suspects capable of winning this mega event, made it to South Africa. Also, all the former World Champions will compete; Uruguay held off a scare from Costa Rica and France eliminated a very unfortunate Irish team due to an incredible hand play by Thierry Henry.
The international football bookmakers rank reigning European Champ Spain together with 5-time winner Brazil as the top of the list with odds around 5.50 (9/2). These two are followed by England (7.50 or 13/2), Argentina (10.00 or 9/1) and Germany at 13.00 (12/1).
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The football bookmakers would currently pay out 14.00 (13/1) for the Netherlands and an always very dangerous Italy. The Top 10 list is completed by France and Portugal with odds around 17.00 (16/1) and the Ivory Coast at 25.00 (24/1).
Behind these 10 top contenders, matters quickly become kind of improbable. While Chile, Serbia, Ghana and Paraguay with sportsbetting odds of around 40.00-60.00 (39/1 – 59/1) might have a very slim chance to win this event, behind these four, there are no less than nine more teams coming it at odds of around 100-to-1, these are: USA, Cameroon, Denmark, Mexico, Nigeria, Australia, Greece, Uruguay and host nation South Africa.
Anyone of these teams winning the FIFA Football World-Cup 2010 would certainly be a major sensation by itself, but if any of “the rest” actually wins it all, then that would rank as one of the most stunning “Cinderella”-victories in sports history for all time. Here the “candidates”:
Switzerland: around 150-to-1
Japan and Slovenia: up to 250-to-1
South Korea, Slovakia and Algeria: 300-to-1
New Zealand, Honduras and North Korea: up to 2000-to-1 (!!)
The FIFA World Cup Final Draw will be held on December 4 in Cape Town (19.00 local time/18.00 CET). Once the draw is complete, some teams winning odds might either go up or down, of course, depending on the group opponents. Especially at World-Cups in the past, there were rather “easy-breezy” groups for the favourites, but also groups containing 4 really strong contenders.
Odds Champions League Final: Barcelona vs. Manchester United
Wednesday, May 27 – Olympic Stadium Rome, Italy: The Champions League Final 2009 between FC Barcelona and Manchester United ! CL Sportsbetting !
The final Champions League clash is getting nearer and nearer. On May 27, Manchester United will try to achieve what hasn`t been done so far in the “new” Champions League era, that is to defend the title. 3 teams have so far reached the final 1 year after winning the Champions League, but so far all three have lost (*).
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Currently, there is no real betting favorite in this matchup as Manchester and Barcelona are offered around 13/8 odds on the win in regulation. A draw after 90 minutes stands at about 11/5 at the moment. Here are the current odds on Barcelona vs. ManU from select bookmakers:
BET365: UK odds: 13/8 – 23/10 – 13/8 ___ decimal: 2.63 – 3.30 – 2.63
LADBROKES: UK odds: 11/8 – 11/5 – 8/5 ___ decimal: 2.38 – 3.20 – 2.60
UNIBET: UK odds: 17/10 – 11/5 – 17/10 ___ decimal:2.70 – 3.20 -2.70
Manchester United and FC Barcelona have had nine official matches so far, with three wins for ManU, two for Barça and four draws. Here are the results from those previous encounters:
1984 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup quarterfinal:
Barcelona – Manchester United 2:0
Manchester United – Barcelona 3:0 –> United won 3-2 on aggregate
1991 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup final:
Barcelona – Manchester United 1:2
1995 Champions League group stage:
Manchester United – Barcelona 2:2
Barcelona – Manchester United 4:0 –> Barcelona advanced, ManU was out
1999 UEFA Champions League group stage:
Manchester United – Barcelona 3:3
Barcelona – Manchester United 3:3 –> ManU advanced, Barcelona was eliminated
2008 Champions League semifinal:
Barcelona – Manchester United 0:0
Manchester United – Barcelona 1:0 –> United won 1-0 on aggregate
(*)
AC Milan won in 1994 (4:0 against Barcelona), lost in 1995 (0:1 against Ajax Amsterdam)
Ajax Amsterdam won in 1995 (1:0 over Milan), lost in 1996 (2:4 against Juventus – penalty shootout)
Juventus won in 1996 (4:2 over Ajax), but lost in 1997 to Borussia Dortmund with 1:3