World Cup Final. France vs. Italy. A mouth watering clash of the titans, or another boring 0-0 draw? Depends on your view of the ‘beautiful game’. The experts were drooling over the Italy vs. Germany semi final, quality football and total commitment from both teams, but of course no goals. In these big games the priority is not losing and the teams that get to the finals are not the flamboyant attacking teams, but the ones who can defend best and that is who we have here. No one has scored against Italy yet, only an own goal against USA has spoiled a perfect defensive record. Indeed if the Italian keeper can keep a clean sheet for 65 minutes he will set a new world cup record for the longest time played with no goals conceded, beating the record of an other Italian keeper of course. I see a trend here, Italy will play with not conceding a goal as the priority and will very likely succeed. The French team have hardly been giving away goals either, just two conceded so far even with Barthez in goal, that really is amazing. Of course both teams have quality players in attack but it is hard to see them being very busy, at least until extra time. A 0-0 stale mate is my prediction and then the real game will start in extra time. Italy have the younger, fitter squad and the old French legs are the most likely to result in a crack in the defence and Italy will win in much the same style as they did against Germany in the semi. 1 points correct score 0-0 @ 5/1 with BetFred. 2 points Italy to win in extra time @ 10/1 with Coral, Stan James, Bet Fred. lost 3 points |
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