Miami Open Men's Day Two Tips

<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 2rem;">Miami Open Men's Day Two Tips: Hoping I'm a good judge by backing Rinder</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">First round action at the ATP Indian Wells Masters continues on Thursday, and after picking up a winner on day one, Dan Weston returns to preview the day ahead...</span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kokkinakis gives us a day one winner</strong></h2><div><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thanasi Kokkinakis</strong> eased to a straight set win over Richard Gasquet late last night to cover the game handicap for us and give us a positive start to the tournament on day one. There's 16 first-round matches remaining, all on today's schedule, which I've run through to try and find the value to build on that start.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The problem is, the card looks pretty trappy. There's a number of clay-courters featuring tonight, who tend not to play much away from the dirt, and unfortunately <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">there's not much of a sample size of hard court data</strong> for the majority of those players.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Throw into the mix that <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">there are many short-priced favourites</strong> today as well, and most of the 16 matches don't look particularly enticing from a pre-match perspective.</span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Djere with long-term struggles on hard court</strong></h2><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One clay-courter who I've seen enough of to know that they're pretty ineffective on hard court is <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Laslo Djere</strong>. He's running at 96% combined service/return points won on hard court in the last 12 months, with even worse longer-term data - making him <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">a markedly below average hard-courter</strong> at this level.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Today, Djere faces <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Arthur Rinderknech</strong> who reached the semi-final on hard court in Doha last month, beating the likes of Denis Shapovalov and Alexander Bublik on the way. Rinderknech also reached the final in January of the Adelaide warm-up event for the Australian Open as well, <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">so he's got some very decent hard court pedigree of late</strong>.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Numbers suggest there's a pretty sizeable ability differential between the two players on hard court, yet Rinderknech is available at <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="4/6"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.65</span></b> to get the win, which looks decent value even as a favourite.</span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kecmanovic looking to back up recent impressive form</strong></h2><div><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Miomir Kecmanovic</strong> impressed last time out at Indian Wells, with three underdog wins including one over sixth seed Matteo Berrettini, and showed signs that he's <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">finally starting to convert his potential</strong> which he showed several years ago at Challenger level.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kecmanovic's opponent tonight is the qualifier <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack Sock</strong>, who has had fitness issues for a couple of years now, and also withdrew/retired from the first two events this season, both at Challenger level.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sock's non-retirement defeats this year, though, <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">have been against strong opposition</strong> (Fritz/Opelka/Tsitsipas) while his wins have been against generally mediocre opponents, so it's pretty tough to assess his level.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I'm leaning towards making the market about right here. Kecmanovic has a numbers edge on hard court over the last year and the <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="4/6"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.65</span></b> about the Serb doesn't feel too far out of line.</span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Popryin drifts from last week's head-to-head clash with Musetti</strong></h2><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Finally, <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lorenzo Musetti</strong> and <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Alexei Popyrin</strong> met a few times at Challenger level as they were making their way up the rankings, and indeed last week at the Phoenix Challenger (Musetti won 6-2 6-2). However, both players are now inside the top 100 - albeit having dropped from their peak rankings just outside the top 50.</span></p><blockquote style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0.75rem 1rem; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; hyphens: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Musetti has more long-term upside, in my view, but Popyrin has marginally better hard court data over the last 12 months.</span></p></blockquote><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Both have disappointed this year, and really need a win to kick-start their season. At the prices, having drifted from that match last week against Musetti, I'd lean towards siding with Popyrin at <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="7/5"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2.44</span></b>, but it's Rinderknech who is today's recommendation.<br /><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgU2WF6tE3R5koeC7kMYMD5oVhFxDli82WDt3zBm851UIDVkqb0t4bq0dVhy9MchFKY2zYTjx9b_ZMvjMPxOsWzSgF1mFRjQwyxcsTlph6ywHnEzKnrxJbX2xXJGnXl9ooQdN7QDN3pCSPCrRn6memGNWiahgBlPZKjjCFaEItlBBhshAGYrfoJtA3i" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="728" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgU2WF6tE3R5koeC7kMYMD5oVhFxDli82WDt3zBm851UIDVkqb0t4bq0dVhy9MchFKY2zYTjx9b_ZMvjMPxOsWzSgF1mFRjQwyxcsTlph6ywHnEzKnrxJbX2xXJGnXl9ooQdN7QDN3pCSPCrRn6memGNWiahgBlPZKjjCFaEItlBBhshAGYrfoJtA3i" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br /><p></p></strong></div></strong></div>

Miami Open Men's Day Two Tips

Miami Open Men's Day Two Tips: Hoping I'm a good judge by backing Rinder First round action at the ATP Indian Wells Masters continue...

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Italy v North Macedonia

<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 2rem;">Italy v North Macedonia: Makeshift Azzurri could be breached</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">Italy look set to field a makeshift defence in their World Cup play-off against North Macedonia on Thursday and Andy Schooler is backing the underdogs to score.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">When <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Italy</strong> failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, their run of 14 consecutive appearances at the tournament came to an ugly end.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Officials promised change and <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Roberto Mancini</strong> duly provided it in some style, his side <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">becoming European champions on the back of a record-breaking 37-game unbeaten run</strong>.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">But that simply makes it all the more remarkable that the Azzurri find themselves back in a familiar, unwanted position of needing to come through a play-off to avoid the ignominy of missing out on world football's top table for the second time in a row.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">It was unthinkable just eight months ago but no longer, especially after the draw put them in the same 'path' as Portugal.</span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Tricky test in store</span></h2><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">A blockbuster showdown in Iberia has been widely anticipated but first Italy must deal with <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">North Macedonia</strong> in Palermo.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">The odds almost make it a forgone conclusion - Italy are <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="2/11"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.19</span></b> to win in 90 minutes and <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="1/12"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.08</span></b> to qualify - but current circumstances may make things much tougher.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Clearly there is <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">huge pressure</strong> on Mancini and his squad, one which is missing key players with many of those who are available struggling for form and fitness.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Euro 2020 winners <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Federico Chiesa, Giovanni di Lorenzo and Leonardo Spinazzola are all absent</strong>, while the 'old faithful' centre-back pairing of <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci</strong> may also not make it into the field with the veteran duo having barely played at Juventus since Christmas due to injury issues.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Essentially, Italy may start this game with none of their first-choice back four from the Euros which has to offer some hope to the underdogs.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">The hosts will hope the presence of <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ciro Immobile and Domenico Berardi</strong> further forward will help propel them to victory - both have been in good form in Serie A, although Immobile has now gone six international games without a goal.</span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Duo banned for visitors</span></h2><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit;" />North Macedonia, <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="20/1"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">21.0</span></b> to win the game, have problems of their own with their midfield pair of <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Elif Elmas and Tihomir Kostadinov both suspended</strong>.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Still, as they showed at the Euros, they are a squad full of players prepared to scrap and the likes of<strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Enis Bardhi</strong>, currently playing in La Liga for Levante, and <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Boban Nikolov</strong> may still be able to disrupt in the centre of the park.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">It may not always be via fair means either - Macedonia were the <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">dirtiest side to qualify for the Euros</strong> and picked up eight cards in their three games at the tournament. Sadly, card prices haven't gone up at time of writing.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Macedonia lost all three of those games last summer, although they were far from embarrassed, scoring in two of their three matches.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">They've lost just once since and while that was a heavy 4-0 defeat against a European giant, a rejuvenated Germany have looked much more impressive than Italy so far this season.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Italians have <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">won just two of their seven this term</strong>, and one of those was essentially a dead rubber - the third-place play-off at the Nations League finals. The other was against Lithuania - a defensively-weak side, who simply aren't at the same level at Macedonia.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">While it is almost five years ago, it's also worth remembering that the Macedonians <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">earned a 1-1 draw in Italy during the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign</strong> - again a result which proved very costly for the Azzurri. The reverse fixture was edged 3-2 by the Italians so there will be plenty of memories of the problems Macedonia can cause.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Essentially, there looks a good chance that this will be closer than the odds suggest with Italy's form and player problems suggesting this won't be a walk in the park.</span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Goals at both ends?</span></h2><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit;" />I considered backing the visitors getting a two-goal start on the handicap at <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="10/11"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.89</span></b> - profit made if they only lose by one. However, there's an obvious risk about them conceding again late on if they are trailing by a single goal given that this is a one-legged tie which has the potential to open up if one side is chasing the game. In-play traders take note.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Instead, I prefer the <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="9/5"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2.8</span></b> on offer about both teams scoring.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">A blanket defence seems unlikely to work for Macedonia and in any case that's not how they've tended to play.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">They did at least have a go at the European Championships and were <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">rewarded with goals in defeat to Austria and Ukraine</strong>.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">With that Italian defence looking very much makeshift, the visitors should sense an opportunity and they've only got one crack at this - they might as well leave it all out there as they chase a first World Cup appearance.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Goran Pandev may have retired since the Euros but <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Aleksandar Trajkovski </strong>has an impressive tally of 19 international goals. It will also be interesting to see how far forward full-backs <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ezgjan Alioski and Stefan Ristovski</strong> manage to get as both have contributed well attacking-wise in the past.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="1280 Stefan Ristovski North Macedonia Euro 2020.jpg" class="mt-image-center" height="720" loading="lazy" src="https://betting.cdnppb.net/football/1280%20Stefan%20Ristovski%20North%20Macedonia%20Euro%202020.600x338.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px auto 20px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;" width="1280" /></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">In terms of other possibilities - especially for this looking for at Bet Builders - right-back Ristovski is worth considering in the shot markets.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">He's at <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">13/8</strong> for 1+ shot, something he managed in two of the three Euros matches.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">On the other side of the ball, Italy's likely left-back <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Emerson</strong> will be encouraged to push on and he's at <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">7/4</strong> for 2+ shots, something he's managed in four of his last 14 competitive international starts.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Italy are likely to dominate the ball so this has potential.</span></p>

Italy v North Macedonia

Italy v North Macedonia: Makeshift Azzurri could be breached Italy look set to field a makeshift defence in their World Cup play-off against...

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South America World Cup Tips

<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 2rem;">South America World Cup Tips: Brazil to damage Chile's dreams</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">It's the penultimate round of World Cup qualifying in South America, and Nathan Joyes analyses the action and predicts what is looking to be a tricky puzzle, starting in Rio de Janeiro...</span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Brazil to sign off in style at home</strong></h2><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Brazil v Chile<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit;" />Thursday, 23:30<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit;" />Live on Premier Sports UK</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">It's been a <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">very straightforward qualifying campaign</strong> for Brazil, especially on home soil, winning six of their seven matches, drawing the other against Ecuador. Having scored 19 goals and only conceding once from a corner, Chile's task of collecting three points looks near impossible.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">The fact Brazil have already qualified for Qatar and the need for Chile to collect valuable points has certainly been reflected in the price, with the hosts currently at 4/9. With a crowd behind them, and this their last competitive fixture before Qatar, the five-time World Cup winners will want to put on a show for their fans.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Chile face Uruguay in their final group game, which is their "<strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">do or die</strong>" match to make it to Qatar, and they'll see any points against Brazil as a bonus. Sadly, this isn't a scenario I foresee.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Brazil have been the <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">masters of clean sheets</strong> on home soil, and a win to nil at <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="1/1"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2.0</span></b> is very much worth chancing once again.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong></span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Goals and three points required</strong></h2><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Cuadrado Colombia Copa.jpg" class="mt-image-center" height="1440" loading="lazy" src="https://betting.cdnppb.net/football/Cuadrado%20Colombia%20Copa.600x338.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px auto 20px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;" width="2560" /></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Colombia v Bolivia<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit;" />Thursday, 23:30<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit;" />Live on Freesports</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">It's been a <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">bitterly disappointing campaign</strong> for Colombia, with far too many draws leaving their World Cup hopes out of their hands. Sitting in seventh spot, with a four-point gap between themselves and Peru, this is a must win match for the home side.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">However, they could not have picked better opponents themselves.</span></p><blockquote style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0.75rem 1rem; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Bolivia have failed to win any of their last 52 World Cup qualifiers away from home and have shipped 25 goals in just eight matches during this campaign.</span></blockquote><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Goals have been hard to come by for Colombia. Three 0-0 draws followed by a defeat to Peru means that they have played over 360 minutes since their last goal at Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Melendez. Even Liverpool's Luis Diaz is on a 646-minute drought for his nation.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">But <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bolivia are poor</strong>. They are certainly no Brazil or Ecuador who have come to Colombia and bee able to leave with a valuable point in the latter stages of qualifying.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Colombia need three points to stand a chance of qualifying for Qatar, but they also need to <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">improve their goal difference</strong>, which could be crucial come next week.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">With <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Luis Muriel</strong>, <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Alfredo Morelos</strong> and <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">James Rodriguez</strong> within their ranks, I'm backing Colombia to turn on the style their fans so desperately crave.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Colombia to be winning at half-time and over 2.5 match goals can be backed with the Bet Builder @ <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="4/5"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.82</span></b>.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong></span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cagey affair anticipated in Montevideo</strong></h2><div><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Uruguay v Peru<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit;" />Thursday, 23:30<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit;" />Live on Premier Sports UK</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fourth meets fifth on Thursday evening, with a win for either <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Uruguay</strong> or <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Peru</strong> guaranteeing them a World Cup spot in Qatar. Stakes are high, to state the obvious.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Despite fairly strong home form, Peru head into this encounter <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">slightly under the radar</strong>, when is comes to their overall performance, especially away from home.</p><blockquote style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0.75rem 1rem; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Peru have accumulated ten points on the road, only less than Brazil and Argentina and after a phenomenal 1-0 victory away to Colombia, they are just one victory away from a top five finish.</blockquote><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The away side here are also on a <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">six-game unbeaten run</strong>, with their last defeat being a narrow 1-0 loss to Argentina, and it's worth noting Yotun missed a penalty to level up in the 65th minute.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Despite back-to-back away wins for Peru against Colombia and Venezuela, five away defeats on the bounce <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">are concerning</strong>. However, backing Uruguay at 6/11 isn't appealing in the slightest. A common theme throughout their defeats has been small margins, and their compact set up makes them difficult to break down.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">With so much on the line, and with Peru having a <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">glorious opportunity</strong> to land that all important win against Paraguay next, I'm backing a tight opening 45 minutes and the half-time draw at <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="1/1"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2.0</span></b> offers plenty of value compared to other markers.</p></strong></div>

South America World Cup Tips

South America World Cup Tips: Brazil to damage Chile's dreams It's the penultimate round of World Cup qualifying in South America, a...

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Portugal v Turkey

<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 2rem;">Portugal v Turkey: Ronaldo and co. will do it the hard way</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">Portugal should get through against a tough Turkey side but extra-time or penalties may be needed, says Jamie Pacheco.</span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Portugal have themselves to blame</strong></h2><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">If Portugal don't qualify for the <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">World Cup</strong>, they really only have themselves to blame. They needed only to avoid defeat against Serbia at home to make it and they were 1-0 up in that decisive game after just two minutes.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">But what happened next was unfortunately something that's happened too much under Fernando Santos these last few years. Their gut instinct is to shut up shop, defend what you have and <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">play like underdogs</strong> for the rest of the match, even though in this case they were at home to a side they'd normally expect to be beating.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Portugal paid the price. First Dusan Tadic and then <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Aleksandr Mitrovic</strong> in injury time scored the goals Serbia needed to send themselves through and Portugal to the play-offs.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong></span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Defensive absences give Santos conundrum</strong></h2><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Despite an embarrassment of riches in midfield and upfront they don't have too may high-class centre-backs.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">So, it was rather disastrous that they lost the excellent <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ruben Dias</strong> to injury. They then also lost Pepe to a positive Covid test, but the Porto man isn't the player he once was, and is less of a loss.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Santos may consider playing PSG's Danilo in defence rather than his more usual position in midfield where Portugal have plenty of other options. But one of them isn't <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ruben Neves</strong>, who also has a minor injury.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Manchester City's <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joao Cancelo</strong> (pictured above) also misses out and he's a really big loss.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong></span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Low on star names, high on resilience</strong></h2><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Turkey put in a decent performance <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">in qualifying</strong>, finishing second to the Netherlands in a Group that also contained a much-improved Norway.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Their 21 points came courtesy of <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">six wins in 10 matches</strong> and they only lost the one game, even though it was, admittedly, a 6-1 <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">thrashing</strong> against the Netherlands.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Unlike in previous years, this isn't a Turkey side with too many star names but it is one that fights hard and shows determination.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">But expect to see <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Caglar Soyuncu </strong>marshal the defence and their dangerman up front is likely to be Cenzig Under, who played alongside Soyuncu at Leicester last year.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">He's having a good season on loan at <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Marseille</strong> and scored in each of his first five games of the season, including two on international duty.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong></span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hosts too short</strong></h2><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Portugal are <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="2/5"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.41</span></b> to win the game in 90 minutes, with Turkey <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="8/1"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">9.0</span></b> and the draw <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="4/1"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5.0</span></b>.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Portugal price is one to avoid and one that can surely only be justified on three counts: that they're at home, that they have a superb record when it comes to qualifying for major tournaments (not missing one since the 1998 World Cup) and they're much better ranked than their opponents: <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Portugal are eighth</strong>, while Turkey are 39th.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">It's also true that Portugal's record against Turkey is excellent with six wins from the eight matches they've played them. Having said that, the last one was almost 10 years ago and for <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">interest's sake</strong>, Turkey actually won it 3-1 in Portugal.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Either way, Portugal aren't generally great in matches like this where they're expected to win. If they go into a match as slight underdogs they're generally at their best and they're unlikely to slip up as <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="1/5"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.2</span></b> favourites, either.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">But it's against these 'inbetween' opponents that they can be a bit vulnerable.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">We're going back a bit now but take Euro 2016 as an example, which of course they ended up winning. They were favourites against all of Iceland, <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Austria</strong> and Hungary in the Group Stages and Croatia and Poland in the knockout rounds and ended up drawing all of them after 90 minutes.<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit;" /><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit;" /><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong></span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Portugal to do it the hard way</strong></h2><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">The far better bet is that Portugal do this the hard way. There's not too much wrong with taking that big-looking <b class="inline_odds" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;" title="4/1"><span class="inline_odds__decimal" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5.0</span></b> on <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the draw </strong>but there might be an even better alternative.</span></p><blockquote style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0.75rem 1rem; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">You can get 8/1 on Portugal winning in extra time and 13/1 that they need spot-kicks to book their place against (presumably) Italy and be just one match away from the World Cup.</span></blockquote><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Portugal are generally very good in extra-time and their penalty shootout record is good, with three wins in five shootouts.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">That they're good when games go beyond 90 minutes <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">shouldn't be surprising</strong>.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Their fitness levels are high so they can find extra energy when it comes to trying to break during extra-time, while they always have technically gifted players who are good at taking penalties.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">So split your <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">stakes</strong> between those two outcomes.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong></span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Wait for line-ups before backing goalscorers</strong></h2><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">All eyes on <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cristiano Ronaldo</strong>, in search of more goals and the chance to break more records.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">That wonderful hat-trick against Spurs is still fresh in the mind but he's only scored in two of his last 12 games and can sometimes try a little too hard on international duty, so I don't think <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the 8/11</strong> is for me that he gets on the scoresheet.</span></p><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bernardo Silva</strong> is generally pretty good for Portugal but a record of just eight goals in 64 matches suggests the 9/4 is too short, although you should be able to get a significantly better price than that on the Exchange.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Forwards Diogo Jota and Joao Felix are 11/10 and 7/5 respectively to score but it's somewhat unlikely that both will play so if you want to back one or the other, best <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">wait till the teams are announced</strong>.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong></span></p><h2 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bet builder at 8.24</strong></h2><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">In the world of <strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bet Builders</strong>, Bernardo (pictured above) may rate a better bet in the anytime assist market, at 7/2.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">If you lump that together with both teams to score at evens, the Bet Builder comes to 8.24.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Noto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiWgewRrCGK_JABplELP7nI30W_8ns3kNk-jc2YJh43ScfDk_iDGexJdtuMRv-VsmFbg5UwDlYh3vvyy_vlEboEFhF0yCYStHdvyGub_YMYsoj8vUj1pOvtwjA7kVR0x9hCr96EBiYpkJUORwWdRj-QHH2Th7LnwjwIM3T1Fko0xkG85oJc8wGI0PR5" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="728" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiWgewRrCGK_JABplELP7nI30W_8ns3kNk-jc2YJh43ScfDk_iDGexJdtuMRv-VsmFbg5UwDlYh3vvyy_vlEboEFhF0yCYStHdvyGub_YMYsoj8vUj1pOvtwjA7kVR0x9hCr96EBiYpkJUORwWdRj-QHH2Th7LnwjwIM3T1Fko0xkG85oJc8wGI0PR5=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br /><p></p></div>

Portugal v Turkey

Portugal v Turkey: Ronaldo and co. will do it the hard way Portugal should get through against a tough Turkey side but extra-time or penalti...

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