World Cup hosts South Africa won’t suffer a group stage exit

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Today’s bet is fairly simple. Back South Africa at 15/8 to get through World Cup Group A - where they are joined by disjointed France, aging Mexico and so-bad-they-were-outclassed-by-Maradona’s-Argentina Uruguay.

The main reason to fancy them is that no World Cup host has ever failed to

Posted: January 21st, 2010 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Portugal and Argentina continue to struggle, Peter Crouch maintains his record

Five stats about this week’s internationals

1. Peter Crouch wasn’t too impressive last night but maintained his incredible international goal-to-start record, with 14 goals in his last 14 starts.

2. England’s 21-point haul from their first seven qualifiers is a drastic improvement on 14 from their first seven in the Euro 2008 campaign, although they did have 19 at this stage under Sven-Goran Eriksson in qualification for the last World Cup.

3. Anyone who thought Portugal had turned the corner with their last-gasp 2-1 win over Albania was proved wrong last night when they drew 0-0 away to Estonia in a friendly. That result was particularly worrying as they were actually performing fairly well in friendlies prior to that, winning four of their previous five.

Posted: June 11th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

France pay the price for sticking with Domenech

Les Bleus’ World Cup prospects are getting worse by the week

France’s 0-0 draw at home to Uruguay last night means that they have now won just six of their sixteen matches since November last year. That doesn’t bode well considering Italy went eighteen games unbeaten prior to the 2006 World Cup and Brazil won six and drew won of their final seven games before lifting the trophy in 2002.

Head coach Raymond Domenech’s sacking appeared a mere formality after they suffered group stage elimination at Euro 2008 but he was surprisingly kept on. Prior to last night’s game there was a threat that the game would be called off if Uruguary booed France’s national anthem but the only jeering heard came from the French fans in the direction of Domenech and his players.

Check out our graph of just how much France’s World Cup odds with Betfair have drifted over the last three months after the jump:

Posted: November 23rd, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Will Uruguay dare jeer La Marseillaise tonight?

Paddy Power offer 33/1 on French friendly being called off

After Tunisia supporters had the audacity to boo France’s national anthem La Marseillaise before a friendly last month, a massive overreaction took place which led to sports minister Roselyne Bachelot claiming: “Any match at which our national anthem is whistled at will be immediately stopped.”

Tonight that bold declaration could be tested for the first time when France return to the Stade de France to face Uruguay in another international friendly and Paddy Power are offering 33/1 on the match being called off should the home national anthem again be greeted with jeers.

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Posted: November 19th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment