Dare you oppose the Germans?
On Tuesday night Holland booked their place in a World Cup final for the first time since 1978 and the orange army await the winners of tonight’s big Spain v Germany clash.
It’s being billed as flair against efficiency as Spain love to play their tiki-taka football whilst Germany are at their best absorbing pressure and playing on the break.
Will Spain have taken note from the way Germany dismantled England and Argentina? The betting shows there’s no clear favourite Germany are 9/5 and Spain slightly shorter at 8/5, can you confidently oppose the Germans though?
Every World Cup when Germany are written off they find themselves in the latter stages and what’s even more impressive is they’ve not had a penalty shootout win yet...
9/5 Germany win
11/5 Draw
8/5 Spain win
9/1 Germany win a penalty shootout
9/1 Spain win a penalty shootout
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Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas has been passed fit to play in the Semi Final and Vincent del Bosque is deciding whether to start Cesc or Fernando Torres.
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Torres has yet to score in this tournament so the manger may opt to play Cesc in a role that supports the very much in form David Villa. Paddy Power has an enhanced special on tonight’s big match; 3/1 David Villa scores and Spain win! With him scoring five of Spain’s six goals this could be a certainty.
It looks like the Player Of The Tournament and Top Goalscorer is going to be contested between David Villa and Holland’s Wesley Sneijder: another goal for the Dutchman last night took him level with Villa on five goals.
Barcelona’s new striker has a chance to set the record straight again and get a lead at the top of the table, he’s the 4/1 favourite to score first and a great 6/5 to score at anytime in the 90 minutes.
If Fabregas does start he could be a good bet at 12/1 to get the opening goal or 9/2 to get one at anytime as he has an eye for goals from range and will also find himself in the penalty area a lot.
For the Germans Miroslav Klose is going for a bigger record and that’s the leading scorer in World Cup history: he's currently on 14 goals, one behind Ronaldo’s record.
He might not score the best goals but he’s always in the midst of any goal mouth action, he’s got value at 6/1 to score the opening goal and is 16/1 to score the two goals that would make the record breaker.
First Scorers
4/1 Villa
6/1 Torres
6/1 Klose
8/1 Podolski
9/1 Cacau
12/1 Fabregas
12/1 Iniesta
14/1 Ozil
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Germany have scored 13 goals to Spain’s six so it’s unfair to say that Germany haven’t been exciting to watch. They’ve scored four goals in three games this World Cup and have only conceded two, the same as Spain.
Not many punters would have backed Germany to score four against Argentina but they did just that; it’s 66/1 they win 4-0 tonight and a massive 20/1 they score four or more goals.
Spain have been too reliant on David Villa and he’ll be closely watched by the German defence if Spain are to make it through to the final, given their form to date you have to
Gary Parkinson is a freelance writer, editor, trainer, muso, singer, actor and coach. He spent 14 years at FourFourTwo as the Global Digital Editor and continues to regularly contribute to the magazine and website, including major features on Euro 96, Subbuteo, Robert Maxwell and the inside story of Liverpool's 1990 title win. He is also a Bolton Wanderers fan.
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