Germany v Australia, Sunday 13th June, 7.30pm
When it comes to major football tournaments, few achieve better results than Germany. This nation reached the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup and then got to the final of Euro 2008. Will they go one stage further in 2010 and land their fourth global title?
The bookmakers are happy to lay Joachim Loew’s team at 14/1 (Ladbrokes), with their price drifting after it emerged that Michael Ballack would be ruled out of the World Cup with injury. However, the captain’s influence was already waning and Bastian Schweinsteiger will be keen to demonstrate that he can become his team’s new talisman. The Bayern Munich midfielder will be on spot-kick duties and is 12/1 (totesport) to break the deadlock at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.
Indeed, Germany won eight of their ten qualifying matches and will be a popular accumulator filler at odds of 8/15 (Paddy Power). They will have the evergreen Miroslav Klose looking to win another Golden Shoe after top scoring at the 2006 World Cup and the Bayern striker is 4/1 (Ladbrokes) to get his side off the mark.
Australia coach Pim Verbeek is as straight-talking a manager as you could hope to find, with the Dutchman openly stating that the Socceroos can’t win the 2010 World Cup. However, he is looking for a place in the last sixteen and you can get 6/1 with William Hill that the Aussies win this match and throw Group D wide open?
While they will play an unadventurous 4-5-1 formation in this match, we all know about Tim Cahill’s aerial prowess in an Everton shirt and the midfielder is 12/1 (bet365) to open the scoring in this match. Indeed, if Australian are to win this match, it’s likely to be a 1-0 scoreline that snags it and Sporting Bet offer 14/1 that it’s the underdogs who manage this.
However, the Germans have the experience to come up trumps in this contest and 11/8 (Ladbrokes) about them winning this contest ‘to nil’ looks an enticing bet. It might not be pretty but Lukas Podolski (5/1 Ladbrokes) always seems to raise his game for the national side and should help them get three points on the board.
