Best bet for Cameroon-Serbia
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The World Cup goes into another week with an intriguing clash between two sides who go into the second round of games with zero points after losing their opening matches.
Cameroon – aka The Indomitable Lions — did not exactly live up to its nickname with a poor performance in a 1-0 defeat to Switzerland. This was no surprise to me as I wrote before the game they arrived here in wretched form and now have just one win in seven Coach Rigobert Song has a very difficult job shaping a team from some very average international players.
You have to go back to 2002 for the last time Cameroon won a game at a World Cup, which shows how far this country has fallen from that breakthrough generation that burst onto the World Cup scene in 1990. As I have written before, African Nations have gone backwards in general but particularly Cameroon. I am afraid Lions fans may well be still looking for that win after Monday’s game.
Serbia may have no points going into Game 2 but they can feel far more confident than Cameroon can going into this clash. Ultimately, they lost 2-0 to Brazil who oozed quality in the second half, but let’s not forget in the first hour Serbia more than held their own. That was the some of the best quality that I have seen in any game in this tournament and Serbia played their part before ultimately succumbing to the mighty Brazil.
This is a very good Serbian team under coach Dragan Stojkovic, which qualified by beating Portugal to top spot in their qualifying group. Fulham striker Aleksander Mitrovic endured a frustrating evening against Brazil, but he will be looking to get his World Cup off and running against a much weaker defense. He has netted six times in his last nine international appearances and with him on penalty kicks, he will be a popular choice to open the scoring.
I have bet myself Serbia to qualify in second to Brazil in this group and I am also putting my cash on them to beat Cameroon tomorrow. We are going to get a bit of extra juice in the odds here and play a same-game parlay of Serbia to win and under 2.5 goals at +270.
The main reason for this is the time of day this game is being played. It is the first game at the 1 p.m. local time kick off and a stat is emerging very strongly in these games which are played in the hottest part of the day. Being out here, I can confirm the heat can influence the players. In the seven games played at this time, no less than six have cashed in less than 2.5 goals.
With that in mind I think Serbia may get a lead and then ease off in the heat. It should not stop them from beating Cameroon, but it may well make it a tighter game than if played in the cool of the desert evening.
Plays: Under 2.5 goals & Serbia to Win +270