Cameroon v Holland, Thursday 24th June, 7.30pm
Unfortunately for Paul Le Guen’s team, they have not lived up to their nickname of Indomitable Lions. While that moniker is supposed to strike fear into the heart of the opposition, it was Cameroon who looked afraid when losing to Japan in Bloemfontein and they relinquished a 1-0 lead to Denmark which means their participation in the 2010 World Cup will be over by 10pm on Thursday night.
Can the African side go out on a high? Several bookmakers (including Stan James) offer 7/2 that Cameroon give their noisy supporters something to cheer about and it’s possible that they will face a weakened Dutch team who are effectively qualified for the last sixteen stage. Samuel Eto’o was highly effective in a central attacking role and the Inter striker is 8/1 (William Hill) to open the scoring at the Greenpoint Stadium. Indeed, it would not be a major surprise to see the 29-year-old retire from international football after this tournament, especially after the criticism by Roger Milla.
The Dutch have looked solid rather than spectacular thus far, although Bert Van Marwijk will be content to see his team winning and keeping clean sheets as that’s what will be needed when the knockout stages begin. There have been 2-0 and 1-0 winning scorelines at the 2010 World Cup so far and you can get odds of 14/1 (Sky Bet) that they add a 3-0 triumph to the collection and go into the business end of the contest full of confidence. If this had been the first Group E match played, you wouldn’t have been able to get anything like 5/6 (Victor Chandler) about a Netherlands win, although that’s probably because the manager might decide to rest one or two players.
Robin Van Persie is notoriously injury-prone and, while the Arsenal forward is 6/1 (William Hill) to open his World Cup account by scoring the first goal of this match, Van Marwijk might instead decide to play Klaas Jan Huntelaar (11/2 bet365). There’s also the question of whether we’ll finally see the outstanding Arjen Robben participate in the 2010 World Cup and the temptation must be to give him some game time before the serious business of knockout competition begins. You can back the Bayern wide man at 7/1 (bet365) to break the deadlock and 12/5 (Sky Bet) that he finds the net at any stage of the game.
With both teams having questionable motivation to win this match, perhaps we should consider that there will be a few goals scored and an entertaining match might ensue. You can back Over 2.5 Goals at odds of 21/20 (Ladbrokes) and a 3-2 win in favour of Holland is on offer at 33/1 (Sky Bet).
