HONDURAS v AUSTRALIA
Friday 10th November 2017 – Kickoff: 1600hrs
Football – Intercontinental – World Cup Qualifiers Betting Tips
My next pick features an intercontinental clash between Honduras, who finished in fourth place in the CONCACAF group, taking on Australia who finished in third place in Group B of the Asian section, and then secured a 3-2 win on aggregate over Group A third placed team, Syria in a play-off – phew.
But back to Honduras, and they were narrowly pipped at the post for third place and an automatic entry for the World Cup despite a massive 3-2 home win over Mexico in the final group match. Panama also managed to pull out all the stops in their final match with a 2-1 win over Costa Rica, so they edged out Honduras on superior goal difference.
After a slow start, Honduras picked up pace and ended their campaign with a solid five match unbeaten run which included wins over Trinidad & Tobago and Mexico, while posting a 2-2-1 8/6 record at their Estadio Tiburcio Carías Andino. 7 of Honduras’ last 11 World Cup qualifiers at home have ended under 2.5 goals.
Australia have had to endure an extremely lengthy and fairly complicated route to even get to this stage of the World Cup qualifier play-offs following two group campaigns consisting of a total of 18 matches, along with the two-legged play-off with Syria.
In their ‘second’ and most rigorous campaign, Australia remained unbeaten on home soil with wins recorded over Iraq, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Thailand along with a draw against group winners, Japan, but their form away from home was far more circumspect.
They finished with an away record of 1-3-1 6/7 on the road with their solitary win being victory at UAE, draws at Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Iraq, along with defeat in Japan.
Socceroos manager, Postecoglou, is expected to keep things tight in this first leg against Honduras whom they’ve never played before.
Pick: Under 2.5 @ 1.57 bwin
