World Cup Group F betting preview

World Cup Group F odds, tips and free bets

IIn Group F you will find Italy, Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand. Italy, current world champions, are undoubtedly the clear favourites to progress to the second round as group leaders. Ladbrokes are offering generous odds of 1/2 on this happening. Italy were solid during the qualification campaign and maintained an unbeaten record throughout. Similarly to when they won the competition, Italy have continued to set themselves up solidly defensively and it has so far worked. However, throughout qualification there were many narrow victories over mediocre sides, when they come up against tougher teams in South Africa their real credentials will be tested. The team has got older and this could prove to be a competition too far for some of them. Despite saying this, anything other than Italy topping Group F will be a big shock.

Paraguay are fairly strong favourites to join Italy in the second round. Odds of 4/7 (SKYBET) are on offer for them to progress to the second round. Paraguay had a very strong qualification campaign finishing above football giants Argentina in the South American group as well as beating Brazil along the way. This shows that they are capable of mixing it up with the best sides in the world on their day, and they may provide a tough test for Italy in the race for top spot in the group. 4/1 (Totesport/SKYBET) for them to win the group may offer good value if Italy slip-up in any of their games.

World Cup debutants, Slovakia, are the bookies tip to finish third. William Hill are offering 6/4 on them to qualify. Slovakia finished top of a fairly tough group in qualifying which included the Czech Republic and Slovenia. They could well turn out to become the surprise package of the 2010 World Cup and certainly won’t go down without a fight. Their most recognisable player to most will be Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel, the combative central defender will certainly do his utmost to help his country progress to the next stage. As well as Skrtel, the squad contains many players that are plying their trade around the top divisions in Europe and they are unlikely to be intimidated by any opposition in this group.

New Zealand are the outsiders of this group at 16/1 to qualify with expekt.com. This is only New Zealand’s second appearance in the World Cup finals, the last being 1982. They qualified after a memorable play-off victory over Bahrain. Although New Zealand will want to progress as far as they can in the competition, they will just be happy to be there and any points may just be seen as a bonus. Many of their players are not playing in the world’s top leagues, and they may see this as an opportunity to put themselves in the shop-window which may help motivate them. As a result of these factors and the lack of depth in the squad, the chances of New Zealand progressing seem slim.

Tips for Group F
Slovakia to qualify- 6/4 (William Hill)
Italy to win the group- 1/2 (Ladbrokes)
New Zealand to finish bottom- 1/4 (expect.com)

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