World Cup Group B betting preview

World Cup Group B odds, tips and free bets

Group B contains Nigeria, South Korea, Greece and hotly tipped Argentina. Argentina are clear favourites to win this group with 8/15 being the best price with Bet365. Although people say there are no givens in international football, surely Argentina will finish at the top of this group? They have a plethora of international superstars available to them such as Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero and Javier Mascherano to name but a few. However, despite the talent available to Maradonna, Argentina only just scraped through South American qualification winning only 8 of their 18 games. This poor qualification included a humiliating 6-1 defeat at the hands of Bolivia. The pressure is certainly going to be on Maradonna given this relatively poor qualification, as well as Argentina’s recent underwhelming World Cup campaigns. Argentina have not progressed past the quarter-final stage since 1990. Despite this, should they play anywhere near what they are capable of; they should qualify with ease at the top of the group.

The team expected to qualify along with Argentina are the African representatives, Nigeria. In the past, Nigeria have shown that they are definitely capable of shocking supposed bigger sides, particularly in the group stages. This year, the ‘Super Eagles’ could offer more of the same given the physicality and ability within the side. Nigeria have a few players, who on their day, are capable of getting a goal out of very little. Obafemi Martins (formerly of Newcastle) and Everton star Yakubu have both proven they can perform against top teams in the Premier League. As well as this attacking threat they have solid defensive minded players such as John Obi Mikel and Joseph Yobo who could make them difficult to break down. Odds of 5/1 are available on them to win the group, but with the threat of Argentina, the smarter bet might be on them to qualify in second place, behind Argentina at 5/2 with SKYBET.

Shock 2004 European Championship winners, Greece, are the third favourites with the majority of bookies. They are available at 13/10 (Paddy Power) to qualify in either 1st or 2nd. They qualified for the finals after coming 2nd in what was one of the easier European qualifying groups and beating Ukraine 1-0 on aggregate in the play-off. This is only their 2nd appearance in the world cup finals and they may suffer from inexperience as a result. However, 2004 was only their 2nd appearance in the European Championship finals, could a highly unlikely lightning bolt strike twice? They also have a squad with plenty of Champions League experience which could help them.

South Korea complete group B. The 2002 hosts and semi-finalists had a fairly decent qualifying campaign, however in order to progress to the 2nd round of the finals they will have to beat much better opponents than they did in qualifying. The current best price on the qualifying from the group is 7/2 with SKYBET. They don’t lack experience in the competition though having qualified for the previous 7 world cup finals’. They also have some decent footballers such as Man UTD attacker Park Ji-Sung.

Tips for Group B
Argentina to finish 1st and Nigeria to finish 2nd- 5/2 (SKYBET)

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