An interesting bet (or two)

A back pass, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

It is going to be a great temptation to bet away and lose all the money I won recently on Russia getting placed in the Eurovision Song Contest and Dragon Dancer becoming second in The Derby.

However, I noticed that www.betdirect.co.uk are offering prices about the teams which concede the fewest goals. I am thinking that 16-1 against Serbia and Montenegro might be a good bet because they have a very strong defence, and being in a group with Argentina, Holland and Ivory Coast, they will probably not make the next round, meaning they will only play three games. A good combination. So I took 5 pounds each way, to win possibly 110 pounds.

Another bet I was thinking about was 8-1 against Mexico to make it to the semi-finals. They have a reasonably good chance of winning their group (from Portugal - could be tricky, Angola and Iran). Not taken the bet yet, as they seem never to have made it to the quarter finals before, so a big leap to make it to the semi's this time. Maybe will look elsewhere.

I think the 66-1 against Francesco Totti being the tournaments leading goalscorer would be interesting, but I have some doubts about Italy. The scandals enveloping Italian football including match-fixing, transfer-fixing and false accounting, involving some of the Italian squad might take their toll. By all accounts, World Cup fever has not gripped Italy. But the other hand, teams often perform better when the least is expected of them and this could all have the perverse effect of galvanising the Italian team. Maybe 1.50 pounds each way on Totti, to win 100. But they have just closed he betting on this. A pity. Time to crawl upstirs and watch the opening game.