World Cup Play -offs - Nov 18th

[benaarondavies]

18 Nov 09 - 18:00	Ukraine v Greece	5/6	9/4	19/5
18 Nov 09 - 19:45	Bosnia v Portugal	21/10	9/4	13/10
18 Nov 09 - 19:45	Slovenia v Russia	19/10	23/10	7/5
18 Nov 09 - 20:00	France v Republic of Ireland	8/15	11/4	6/1
18 Nov 09 - 23:00	Uruguay v Costa Rica	4/9	11/4	5/1

[benaarondavies]

sorry guys i got these odds from williamhill

[dak]

Ukraine - Greece: Greece (+0.5) AH @ 2.10 (Bet1128) 10/10

I think the odds are too short for Ukraine here. There isn't much that separates the teams. In the first match both teams achieved their goal of keeping a clean sheet. Ukraine also achieved its goal of at least drawing the match. If Ukraine can hold Greece to a draw I can't see any significant reason why the reverse can't happen. Ok, Ukraine might appear to be a bit more creative than Greece, but the Greek team is very experienced and knows how to play the game tight with emphsis on its defensive match. Sure, Ukraine may win the match by a goal, but the value bet, I think, is for Greece to get something.

Algeria - Egypt: Algeria or Draw (double chance) @ 1.85 (William Hill) 10/10

I don't think that Egypt should be as strongly favoured as they are. The teams are pretty even. The group results, I think, reflect this. Egypt was able to take the qualification issue this far by scoring a goal in the final moments of the last match between the teams, winning 2-0. Algeria had opportunities to draw the match which they missed. The match is being played in Sudan and both teams are going to be extra careful in such a do or die situation. We could get a draw at the end of 90' a bit of drama in this match. I think the value bet is definitely on Algeria

[Stuck In A Box]

Bosnia are very good at home and always seem to score. If they were to get the 1st the odds would come crashing down and they`ll have home advantage for the remainder of the tie.

[blackcrow]

Ukraine @ 1.86 pinnacle
Hard to recommend a Greek side that was second best at home in the first leg, as they are far too cautious and defensive in their game and allowed Ukraine to attack them regularly. Now they are away in the second leg and will probably adopt the same tactics but face a side that has not conceded a goal in their last 5 qualifiers. As Greece is unlikely to score, then Ukraine at home, with a big crowd supporting them, and probably played in cold conditions which will suit them, have all the advantages in their favour. If any team is likely to win thn, it is they, especially if they show the same form as they did in Greece, then a goal will surely follow.

Bosnia - Portugal over 2.5 @ 2.05 centrebet
Bosnia showed in the first leg that they are not overawed by the Portuguese and could consider themselves very unlucky they did not have at least one goal in the first leg. As for the Portuguese, espect them to play much better as they have been far too reliant on Ronaldo in the past and believe now have adkusted to playign without him. They will face a pretty hostile crowd and who will push the Bosnians to attack from the start. Would not surprise to see Bosnia to score early and level the tie, which should open the game up even more and expect further goals to follow.

Slovenia - Russia over 2.5 @ 2.24 pinnacle
While Russia controlled the first game to win 2-1, Slovenia showed that they are able to break down the Russians with a goal in the end, and expect them to be able to find the net here again. They beat Poland 3-0 in their last home game and showed that they are tough to beat at home while Russia scored and conceded in their last 2 away qualifiers. A goal will change the context of this game very quickly and irrespective of whoever scores, will force the other team to attack even more to swing the tie back in their favour. Can see goals happening in this game

France -1.5 @ 2.74 pinnacle
As much as Ireland gave it their all, they lacked the quality to beat France at home and now travel to the continent where they are a goal down. France have steadily improved during the course of these qualifiers where earlier on, they struggled, but an emphatic 5-0 win over Faroe Islands and a 3-1 home win over Austria showed that they are coming into some form prior to beating the Irish in the first leg. Anelka and Henry provide that cuttin edge which can create and score quite quickly and the Irish, though they will give it their all, will be underdone by the difference in talent between the two sides.

[uptheirons]

Ukraine/Greece X @ 3.50, Ladbrokes
I was on draw in first leg and i'll take it second leg too. Why? Cause i doubt that Ukraine is able to break Greek wall which Rehagel will place in front of his goal. Greece plays best in such games in which they are considered as underdogs. In first game we saw what we'll see, more or less, here in Donetsk. Cautious game from both side and most likely low number of goals, maybe 0-0 again? If Greece scores Ukraine wont score two, and both teams know that. Massive price for such outcome...

France/Ireland @ 4.10 Unibet
First match should be a draw but France got lucky and won 1-0, so now, even a draw will be a good result for them.
Ireland will probably look to remain in the match as long as they can, with active result and try something in the finishing. In any case, Irish fighting spirit and loud support from the stands plus french struggling with such fighting teams can bring us big winnings at these odds.

[Muscleman]

France v ROI

France hold the aces going into the 2nd leg. The French set out in the 1st leg to get the away goal to ease the pressure going into the 2nd leg. I dont think they expected to come away with a victory though, but some poor finishing saw the ROI come out of the game without a goal. ROI will need to push the french for a goal in the 2nd leg and abit of quality early on could put the ROI back into the tie. Ofcourse the game is still anyones for the taking, especially if ROI manage to hit France with an early goal. The way I see it though is that the French team were too comfortable in the first leg, and the difference in Class was noticable throughout the match. I can see ROI attacking early on to try and level things up which will be great for France's chances of scoring again, and out of the two sides, I can only envisage France hitting the back of the net. Ireland could struggle to make an impact infront of Goal again and I feel that the French will be looking to score tonight to stretch that slender lead as a draw is too risky to hold out for. I can see a French victory quite easily unless ROI get it right infront of goal tonight and take the chances they might get. It all boils down the the fact that I cant see ROI being a huge threat here, they are not in the same league on paper, player for player and the class difference will be again visable on the pitch tonight. The best ROI can get here is a draw and that wont send them to the WC so they will only be interested in a win. I think France will be able to score one or 2 goals and block the Irish out and should advance with a couple of goals in reserve. Should be fairly comfortable.

France win

[misfits7]

Bosnia - Portugal
Bosnia played very good football at the 1st game and show to everyone that they worth to go to South Afrika. On the other side Portugal doesn't seem to be in a good form but I don't think that they will not be present at th World Cup.
so my opinion for today match is: X (score 2-2) or 1 (score 2-1, 3-2) , anyway the match is over 2.5, maybe over 3.5!

[Mahno]

I'm taking Ukraine to win here.
And again we will play 2 strikers up front: Sheva and Milevsky while Greece will play 1 striker again.
I wouldn't recomend Greece to play defensive football at Donbas Arena.
Donbas Arena(Shakhtra's home ground) has been built specially to suit Shakhtar's attacking football style.The grass is very short and ball flyes with great speed.If you noticed every home match Shakhtar wins by 3 or 4 goals but when they play away they strugle to socre 2.
I expect ukraine to attack from the begining and push for early goal.If Greece can hold 0-0 till HT then i see draw at FT as well unless we'll get penalty in the end .We will be playing with the same squad,maybe Yarmolenko will start for Rotan.Just to remind you we drew against Croatia at home and beat England so i don't see Greece taking anything from this match.If Ukraine will score an early goal we win

[friskyfitz]

Originally Posted by ShitTips

It's all very simple.

France v Ireland.France -1hcp.
Platini has already called the referee and spelt out the benefits of France qualifying for South Africa. He will also offer the referee the option of having some big games in Cape Town during the WC and has emailed him some brochures of some top class hotels he may select for his time there.

Michel will also be entertaining some guests tonight at the match and doesn't want to look like a fool if the French don't qualify. He has alsoo been practising some nice poses for the camera when it zooms in on him during the match.Last words to the referee,"I don't like to squirm in my seat or to do facial twitches in front of the camera, so an early sending off would be nice also".

[Caveman]

first leg was already a "card feast" in Portugal - B&H match and I expect even much more intense in this one, nobody in each team cares about a yellow card anymore, and if match will be at draw in late period, we could easily also see an overreaction by disapointed hosts...
Expekt offers nice 2,10 for over 55 "card points" (10 for each yellow, 25 for each red card), and I give it a try with small/medium stakes

[Caveman]

Originally Posted by ShitTips

It's all very simple.

France v Ireland.France -1hcp.
Platini has already called the referee and spelt out the benefits of France qualifying for South Africa. He will also offer the referee the option of having some big games in Cape Town during the WC and has emailed him some brochures of some top class hotels he may select for his time there.

Michel will also be entertaining some guests tonight at the match and doesn't want to look like a fool if the French don't qualify. He has alsoo been practising some nice poses for the camera when it zooms in on him during the match.Last words to the referee,"I don't like to squirm in my seat or to do facial twitches in front of the camera, so an early sending off would be nice also".

[Greenhoff]

Agree about Algeria being a bit of value. DNB @ 2/1 i've plumped for. Egypt being priced on their history and star names imo. Only scraped into this playoff situation with a stoppage time goal, and were thumped 3-1 in algeria a few months back. Identical group records suggests there's nothing to seperate these two. The Algerians were under the cosh off the pitch last saturday which must have affected some players going into the game.
The 'Match of Hate' as it's been billed, has loads of aggro in it's history and tonight should have it's moments. Spreads pitched the bookings @ 72, which is too rich for me. Bought the Fat Lady @ 18 though. Hopefully, the situation won't be heading for extra time, and the last ten minutes could have plenty of action. A ref from the Seychelles has the gig. Belhadj anytime card also @ 4.25. Carded in the return fixture, and can get stoked up in in this type of atmosphere and importance.

[fintron]

im cheering on the underdog, come on ireland. Think they may nick at 1-0 on the night, france are full of ofancy dans and ireland will scrap for everything and have nothing to lose.

[puntyboy]

Originally Posted by fintron

im cheering on the underdog, come on ireland. Think they may nick at 1-0 on the night, france are full of ofancy dans and ireland will scrap for everything and have nothing to lose.

WE're all praying fintron, the longer this match stays at 0-0 the more i will fancy our chances of nicking something tonight. I don't see france pressing from the start and I doubt Trappatoni will let our boys either, which could set up a very nervy finale for the french support.

A nice 89th minute deflected O.G from a corner will do us nicely!

Lets just hope it's not over by half time (well, for those not backing france anyway,) Good luck all.

[Rob the I ty]

Algeria -1 @10.28
Massive value here. Algeria have already beaten Egypt 3-1 and the score was 3-0 until Egypt scored a late goal which turned out to be massive for them. Perhaps Algeria will opt for the 4-3-3 they played in the first meeting to carve out more goal scoring opportunities. Not much between the sides and do expect this to go to penalties but these odds are too good to pass up.

[bahnhof]

Just a word of caution - the Algerian keeper, as far as I'm aware, is suspended for the match. However, he plays for an Algerian team and will be replaced by another keeper from the Algerian league, so I don't know if this will be too much of a setback.

Algeria were seconds away from qualifying, and if they hadn't have conceded a 90th minute goal to Egypt in their first qualifying match, the 2-0 win Egypt got last week still wouldn't have stopped Algeria qualifying. Maybe there is a mental element to this match. Algeria could be accused of bottling it twice late on in both matches, which as stopped them qualifying. The pressure is on Algeria as they caused their own downfall - qualification was within their own hands but they couldn't hang on. Momentum is with Egypt.

Having said that, I'd price this as a 50/50 match so will be laying Egypt HT/FT. Bit safer than laying Egypt outright, think this could be a 0-0 HT, 1-0/0-1 FT match.

[monya75]

Ukraine - Greece

I do not want to climb in the result, because the teams are equal. Odd, I would have painted like this: 50-25-25
And the banker to call it hardly ... but at Under 2.5 I really I rely. Because both teams have a fairly approximate idea of the speed football. Although very much like to win Urainy .... Under!

[monya75]

Bosnia-Portugal 1-1

And what can I say ... Bosnians course guys happy, but in all this euphoria, one somehow does not look that most home wins they had on low-level commands ... Type Armenia, Belgium, Estonia ... The only team more or less comparable with Portugal is Turkey ... and the match ended 1-1. About Spain, I generally keep quiet ... 2-5. Next Bosnians do not trample as with Spain because there was nothing was solved ... Seen a legitimate draw, and the whiner go to entertain the natives in the summer ... And, strange as it seems Under 2.5.

[monya75]

France-Ireland 1-0 1-1

The fact that the French will go to South Africa I have no doubt, but how do they do this? Known only Domenech ... Maybe a draw will take place .... Under 2.5 here.