Football – World Cup – Third Place Play-Off
Saturday 12th July 2014 – Kickoff: 1700hrs
In football’s biggest anti-climactic fixture in the world, host nation Brazil and Netherlands face one last match in this 2014 World Cup and it’s a game that neither team will be that keen to participate in following their respective semi final exits.
Focusing on Brazil first, and just when they wanted the ground to swallow them up after their disastrous semi final against Germany, they have to face their public once more and a similarly hurting Netherlands side at the Estadio Nacional in Brasilia.
In arguably the biggest shock in World Cup finals football (not a shock that Germany won, but the manner in which they won), Brazil were well and truly humiliated in their own back yard in a 1-7 annihilation and this result will haunt them for many years to come. Thiago Silva was conspicuous by his absence as the defence were left chasing shadows, and Germany attacked at will.
But make no mistake – Brazil will be hurting as they’ve never hurt before, and the players will be anxious to atone as far as they can in this match with the Dutch. Minus Neymar of course, but players such as Oscar, Hulk, Fred and Ramires can step out of his shadow and step up here today and show what they’re truly capable of – even if the horse bolted a few days earlier.
Onto Netherlands then, and I don’t know what’s worse – losing 1-7 and being totally outplayed in front of your own nation’s fans, or losing out on a final place through penalties? The Dutch will probably say the latter – just. At least now they can shake off the shackles that seemed to entwine them from the quarter-finals onwards and play their natural game here in what is seemingly a game with nothing to lose and gaining a bit of pride for both teams.
This will be the ‘swan-song’ of quite a few Dutch players here I feel with the likes of van Persie, Robben, de Jong and Sneijder running out of time on the international stage, and this fixture gives us another chance of watching them all in action together, almost certainly for the last time in a World Cup.
For that reason alone, I strongly believe that the Netherlands will come out with all guns blazing and try and replicate what the Germans did on that fateful Tuesday night against Brazil, although it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever see another performance of that kind ever again in the World Cup, at least where Brazil are concerned!
To wrap up, in a match that no-one wants to play in following defeat in the semi-finals, football is football and footballers just want to play and win – so with that in mind, I’ll back the goals market in this one as Brazil will want to prove that the Germany result was just a one-off, while Netherlands can revert back to their ‘total football’ roots and express themselves. It may end up a 2-1 scoreline to Brazil but back the Over 2.5 here.
Pick: Over 2.5 @ 1.62 Bet Victor
