Ivory Coast World Cup Betting Preview

Ivory Coast odds and free bets for 2010 World Cup

Ivory Coast are generally considered to be the strongest African team in this year’s competition and have a slight advantage over most teams considering the World Cup is being playing on ‘home soil’. They are best priced 28/1 to win the trophy with William Hill in what would be considered a major upset. 

 It is probably inconceivable to see Ivory Coast in a World Cup final so I’m going to focus in particular on their group – Group G. They have been drawn alongside Brazil, Portugal and North Korea in what promises to be a hotly contested group. Portugal are probably their biggest rivals for second place and the bookies are finding it difficult to split these two teams. Ivory Coast are best priced 4/1 to win the group with Sporting Bet, but more relevantly are 10/11 with Betfred to qualify for the knockout stages.      

Ivory Coast were given a bye through to the second round of qualification in the African zone. They then topped the group table in both round 2 and round 3, without losing a game in the process.

When considering Ivory Coast’s chances in the tournament you immediately think of one player – Didier Drogba. He is his countries all time leading goalscorer, with 43 goals in 65 appearances and is one of the best strikers in the world. If Ivory Coast are to have any chance of progressing from their group, he will need to be on form scoring goals. Powerful, strong in the air and clinical when faced by the goalkeeper, Drogba looks a steal at 33/1 with William Hill for the golden boot, especially when you consider he could score a hatful against North Korea.

It looks unlikely that Ivory Coast will go all the way to the final as should they progress from their group as runners up, Spain would be the likely second round opponents. Getting to the last 16 would be an achievement and Betfred provides odds of 15/8 that they will be eliminated in the second round. One market Ivory Coast do have a great chance of winning is the ‘top African team’. They are best priced Evs with Blue Square to progress the furthest of all the African team and this looks realistic.         

Reccomended bets: Ivory Coast to be the furthest progressing African team at Evens with Blue Square.

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