Spain favourites to win, but can they get past the Portugal defence?
Spain face Portugal on Tuesday night in the last 16 of the 2010 World Cup and it promises to be an enthralling match between two of the most exciting sides in world football.
Much of the pre-game focus will be on Cristiano Ronaldo (13/2, VictorChandler) who will be up against his Real Madrid team-mates Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas, but it is in fact the Portuguese defence that will have the largest impact on the outcome of this match.
Portugal, who are 10/3 (Bet365) to beat Spain, have arguably the best defence in world football having conceded just three goals in their last 18 matches. No-one has managed to get the ball past Eduardo so far in South Africa and it is 11/4 (VictorChandler) that the Portuguese goalkeeper keeps a fourth clean sheet of the tournament on Tuesday.
He will, however, face his toughest test of the World Cup so far in trying to prevent David Villa (4/1, StanJames) and Fernando Torres (11/2, Bet365) from scoring.
If those two can click in attack, and Xavi (16/1, Blue Square) and Andres Iniesta (12/1, Bet365) can play as they do for Barcelona, then Spain (11/10, Coral) can beat Portugal on Tuesday evening, but it definitely won’t be easy.
Spain’s form at the World Cup hasn’t been brilliant yet and they lost to Switzerland in their opening match and laboured to victory over Chile, even once the South Americans had been reduced to ten men.
A victory over Honduras isn’t anything to be particularly proud of, so don’t expect them to suddenly come out and win by a big margin. In what is certain to be a close game, the value bet may be to take the draw, at 11/5 (Bet365).
Cristiano Ronaldo has looked good in South Africa and if anyone is going to score for Portugal it will be the former World Player of the Year. At 21/10 with Bet365 he looks a little big in the anytime goalscorer market, especially as the firm refund losing goalscorer bets if the game ends in a 0-0 draw (6/1, Bet365), a result that Portugal have had twice already at the World Cup.
Recommendations
Win Market – Draw (11/5, Bet365)
Anytime Goalscorer – Cristiano Ronaldo (21/10, Bet365)
