S.P. Read Esq. Brazil v Croatia

Our daily columnist and pundit S.P. Read Esq starts his World Cup betting on Star Spreads tonight and thinks Brazil will strike early in their opener against Croatia.

If you sit down at the start of a poker tournament and you are dealt pocket aces first hand something inside you says you shouldn’t go ‘all in’ because it’s the first hand of the night.

There will be many soccer punters thinking Brazil are certainties for tonight’s opening World Cup match against Croatia but how many will want to go ‘all in’ on the very first match of the tournament?

Brazil are the most successful country in the history of the World Cup and also have the obvious advantage of playing at home.

The stats alone give them a great chance. A host nation has NEVER lost their opening game and if you fancy, as many do, Brazil to go all the way and lift the trophy on 13th July you’ll take comfort from the fact that in the 19 World Cups, the hosts have either won (most recently France in 1998) – or finished second or third – on 11 occasions.

In addition, no team from outside South America has ever won a World Cup held in the Americas – and there have been seven of them.

The Arena Corinthians, Sao Paulo will be the centre of the universe tonight for the opening match (9pm, ITV) and the good news for Brazil is that star striker Neymar has recovered from a training ground knock that left an entire nation holding its breath and is likely to start.

For Croatia it’s not so good news. They will be without their most potent forward, Mario Mandzukic, who is suspended following his red card in the play-off game against Iceland in November.

The opening games tend to be tight affairs no matter what the line-up. Eight of the last 12 openers have produced one goal or less.

It’s been a close game too in the only two previous encounters between these sides (including the 2006 World Cup):

HEAD TO HEAD RECORD
(Max last 10 only)
Jun 2006 World Cup Brazil 1 – 0 Croatia
Aug 2005 International Croatia 1 – 1 Brazil

There’re a whole host of markets available on Star Spreads – the home of sports spread betting.

The spread on bookings 45-49 looks quite high at face value. I’d prefer to see how lenient or otherwise the referee is this evening and get a feel for any perceived moratorium that may have been given to them for the World Cup.

Brazil have an expectant nation supporting them and will no doubt like to prove themselves early on, so the spread on the 1st Brazil match goal at 40-43 looks a very tempting sell to me.

This is a spread on the time in minutes of the first goal so we will be looking for a a first half goal. The earlier the better.

CLICK HERE FOR LIVE MARKET ON STAR SPREADS

RECOMMENDED BET (scale 1-100 points)

SELL TIME OF FIRST BRAZIL GOAL AT AROUND 40 WITH STAR SPREADS for 5 points

• Any spread prices quoted are indicative and as always prices are subject to fluctuation.
• Please note the opinion, views and forecasts above are of the author and not of Star Spreads.