Argentina are in disarray right now. They came into the tournament in Brazil aiming to finally land silverware, having lost in four of the last five Copa America finals. However, there’s little chance of them getting that far this time around. At their best, Argentina are a complacent, unorganised group. At their worst, this squad look like strangers who teamed up seconds before kick-off.
Argentina were outclassed by Colombia in their opener and then frustrated by Paraguay in the second game. There’s little about them which has improved since their struggles at Russia 2018, in fact, they seem to be even worse. There’s little sense of a plan, while this side continues to underwhelm in attack despite having the most gifted forward line in international football.
Venezuela are impressing with what they have so far. They only conceded their first goal of the tournament in the 82nd minute of their third game – when they were already 2-0 up. They held hosts Brazil and Peru to 0-0 draws in the group stage, we think they can pull that off against Argentina. Venezuela are three games unbeaten against Argentina, including a 3-1 win back in March. That has us backing the outsiders to avoid defeat on Friday.
Spain first beat Belgium 2-1, a result they followed up by crushing Poland 5-0. The Poles had been in top spot at the time, so to record that heavy victory to book a semi-final place shows the talent in this Spanish team. Meanwhile, France were never really pushed on their way to finishing second in Group C. They pulled off a late turnaround to see off England, while they narrowly edged out a poor Croatia side.
The main problem for France has been their finishing. They missed two penalties against England, then scored just once in the two games which followed. Spain are now showing a balance across their side which makes them seem formidable, so we’re backing Spain for a victory on Thursday.
From a betting point of view, it would be easy to side with the hosts, though they appear to represent little value. AIK are the most likely winners of this contest, but the price on offer at present suggests that their chances are slightly greater than all available evidence would suggest.
The bet that does stand out at the prices is ‘Over 2.5 Goals’. AIK are no strangers to scoring goals at home, having notched six in their last three at Friends Arena, but they’re up against a Norrkoping side that has been anything but shy in front of goal on the road. Given that the pair average a combined 2.93 goals for in their respective home and away games, coupled with the fact that there’s been an average of 3.12 expected goals in Norrkoping’s travelling games this season, backing the goals to arrive in no small number offers punters a slice of value.
Ivory Coast, since winning the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015, have experienced a dip in form. They bundled out in the Group stage of the 2017 edition and they also failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, due to an ageing squad.
But with plenty of young talent in the squad this year, they are confident of going all the way and will be eager for a winning start against South Africa, who didn't enjoy the best of preparation ahead of the tournament.
They played just one friendly match, against Ghana which ended 0-0, of their proposed three.
Despite the big-name absentees, there’s plenty to be excited about ahead of this clash. While France are arguably the most impressive nation across international football right now, the future looks bright for England. They are coming off success across the age groups, capped off with their Under 20 World Cup success in 2017. There are 11 players in this squad who were part of the group which won that tournament in South Korea, so England are obviously bringing talent here.
Chapecoense were defeated by Góias last time out and head into this match with four losses in the last five matches, which is due to their leaky defence.
Fluminense are struggling for consistency in their performances. However, they were able to neutralise Flamengo's offensive power last time around, which could boost them into Friday's game.
This should be a hard-fought match between teams who are dealing with a lot of injury concerns. A draw is on the cards.
Krylya Sovetov are going through an extremely negative run of results and have conceded 10 goals in their last three matches. The Samara outfit will need to be at their very best in order to pull off a positive result on Thursday.
Vitesse averaged more than 2 goals per game during the regular season but Utrecht weren’t too far behind. They’ve netted 9 in their last 4 games so they are clearly in decent form in front of goal and 4 of their last 6 games have produced over 2.5 goals in total. They may feel as though attack is the best form of defence against this opposition and that should ensure this game produces plenty of chances and backing Over 2.5 Goals & Both Teams to Score could be the way to go.
With such a strong home record, backing Vitesse & Both Teams to Score could also be worth considering, a winning bet in 9 of their last 14 home league games.
South Africa’s Veldwijk has scored an impressive twenty-four goals in the league for Sparta Rotterdam this season, but TOP Oss’ Dogan is only three goals behind on twenty-one. We’re confident that a double chance bet on TOP Oss will pay off on Wednesday, but our prediction of a 2-1 win for the visitors won’t be enough for them to progress any further. TOP Oss are the form favourites and will be keen to make up for their disappointing display in the first leg. When these two sides have met recently, the away side has picked up much better results than the hosts, a trend we expect to see continue on Wednesday.
In summary, Cadiz have scored more goals, conceded less goals, while they average more expected goals for and have conceded less expected goals on average at home than Osasuna have on the road.
From a betting point of view, ‘Cadiz to Win & Under 3.5 Goals’ catches the eye. Osasuna are the league leaders, but Cadiz’s home efforts this season, when considered in conjunction with Osasuna’s away-day exploits, tell us that they’ve got a slightly greater chance of recording a low-scoring win than the current prices suggest.
Portsmouth have never won a play-off match in five attempts (W0 D2 L3), with both of their home games ending 2-2 – against Leicester in 1992-93 and Plymouth Argyle in 2015-16.
I believe they will advance
Chelsea are firm favourites to reach the Europa League final after drawing 1-1 with Eintracht Frankfurt and justifiably so, judged on what we saw in Germany.
The Blues had to come from behind at Commerzbank Arena but looked much the better team when growing into that game after levelling on the stroke of half-time.
We expect Maurizio Sarri’s side to control proceedings in London and 27/20 for a home win to nil is our initial Chelsea vs Eintracht Frankfurt prediction.
Ajax have won at Real Madrid, Juventus and Spurs in the Champions League this season, but they have failed to win any of their last three home ties in the competition. There are bound to be plenty of nerves on and off the pitch in Amsterdam and I expect Spurs to give the hosts plenty of problems despite their poor recent run of results. Spurs could, and probably should, have been out of sight by half-time at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday and it says much about the game when the Man of the Match award goes to the goalkeeper of the side who played the vast majority of the 2nd half with a two-man advantage. I expect to see Mauricio Pochettino’s side score in Holland, but I fear it will be the hosts who qualify for the Final in Madrid at the beginning of June.
Cincinnati have lost five straight matches.
Since winning two matches in a row, Minnesota have lost three matches in a row.
This is the first meeting between these two sides in MLS history.