Going Out at the Group Stage

I think it’s about time to find myself a worthy bet for the group stages before the World Cup gets underway. Japan, Australia, South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia are all going to have a tough time of it, and I don’t think they’ll get further than the group stage.

The competition they have ahead of them is a little too tough for them to handle

Bet Tips

If we’re going to talk about how Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia’s World Cup is going to play out then we don’t really need to say more than it’s going to be one hell of a tough ask for them to get past the group stages. Having said that the two teams that have the best shot of getting out of their respective groups are South Korea and Japan. But I still think that the competition they have ahead of them is a little too tough for them to handle.

Japan

Japan won their qualification group, just pipping Saudi Arabia and Australia to the post. South Korea actually came second in their group after Iran but didn’t face much competition from less than impressive nations like China and North Korea. It’s not easy to really judge the true quality of the World Cup qualifiers from the Asian groups as their competition isn’t generally up to standard.

They’re a pretty average team on paper

The players I’m looking at that stand out for the Japanese have to be Okazaki from Leicester, Yoshida from Southampton, Osako who plays for FC Köln and of course Honda who’s now plying his trade in the Mexican league. So overall they’re a pretty average team on paper and Japan’s chances of rattling the cage and making it out of their group are pretty small.

Japan face stiff opposition from the likes of Poland and especially Colombia. With frontman Sadio Mané leading the line for Senegal, the West Africans are looking a lot more interesting than they have in a long time. All in all, Japan can probably take a couple of points out of this group but I don’t think it’ll be enough to see them through.

South Korea

South Korea are the team that I have the highest expectations for going through. They don’t have such heavy competition from their group as the other teams I’ve singled out. Likewise with Japan, it’s tough to judge South Korea on their qualification form, and for the same reasons. As an overall team, South Korea feel on par with Sweden, but some way behind Mexico all in all.

In the qualification campaign Son wasn’t so impressive

Naturally, they’ll be resting all their hopes on star man Heung Min Son, and it’ll be up to him to perform if they’re going to stand a chance. In his finer moments the Spurs winger can be considered world class and makes the difference at key points in matches. However, in a team that’s some way behind him in terms of class and quality, it will be interesting to see if his leadership qualities make the grade. In the qualification campaign Son wasn’t so impressive, and it was actually striker Kim Shin-Wook who was most on target, up to date playing in Korea’s domestic league. All in all it’s a pretty inconspicuous squad although Brits will recognise Sung Yeung Ki from Swansea.

South Korea have a slightly better chance than Japan, and they even smashed the Japanese 4-1 in qualification. But all in all it’ll be too much for Son and Wook to navigate their team through the group.

Summary

Betfair have odds of 11/10 (2.10) on Japan, Australia, South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia all going out in the group stage. Though you do have to recognise South Korea’s potential in making it to the knockout stages, the odds for this bet are extremely attractive. You’ll find the odds under ‘match combos’.

Bet Japan, Australia, South Korea, Iran & Saudi Arabia eliminated at Group Stages on Betfair