Winning the World Cup should be the pinnacle of any player’s career. Some players heading to the 2018 World Cup will get the chance to experience that during the summer. Of course, from the realistic point of view, not all players who are going to Russia 2018 have the same expectancy or chance of actually winning. For example, Neymar is going to have a better chance of winning the world cup 2018 than Uruguay’s Luis Suarez. They are two great strikers of the world game in their own rights, but Brazil are much stronger side down their South American counterparts.
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Brazilian Brilliance
Brazil, for example, are trading at 4/1 odds in 888sport World Cup 2018 odds* (betting odds were taken on June 6th, 2018 at 2:49 a.m.) whereas Uruguay are nothing more than an optimistic each way option out at a massive 31/1 odds mark. Even more, there was a pending doubt over the participation of Neymar who broke his foot backing March, but there was not much wavering of support for Brazil to win the tournament in the summer.
Good newsfor Brazil is that Neymar is back in action and that will increase their chances of success. Brazil are a very different beast and four years ago, so much better in terms of having a balanced squad and playing as a team instead of it being the Neymar Show. Brazil are stacked with immense talents in all departments and are going to take some stopping as they try and secure their sixth World Cup title.
German greatness
The only ones close to Brazil in the World Cup outright winner market at 888sport has been Germany who are the 9/2 odds* (betting odds were taken on June 6th, 2018 at 2:49 a.m.) second-favourites to walk away with the title. Germany are the reigning world champions and have proven time and time again just how efficient they are at tournament football. Just like Brazil, they have an enviable squad at their disposal. Germany got back their number one goalkeeper Manuel Neuer for the tournament which will just add extra strength to an already is a very good mobile and strong defence.
Going forward they have the creative brilliance of Mesut Ozil and Ilkay Gundogan who will no doubt between them create plenty of chances for Thomas Muller and Timo Werner who will be relied upon for the goals. It’s a great squad and have a great manager in Joachim Low and it would be a huge surprise if Germany were not in the mix of things at the final four stage of the 2018 World Cup.
Other Contenders
So with Brazil and Germany, both looking so strong and the ones to beat at the tournament without much question really, what are the chances of anyone else getting their hands on the title? In 888sport World Cup 2018 betting odds the chasing pack consists of Spain, France, Argentina, Belgium and England as they are the only ones heading to Russia 2018 under the 20/1 odds mark. But even with that said England are a chunky 18/1 price* (betting odds were taken on June 6th, 2018 at 2:49 a.m.) are more of a dark horse/each way outsider option as opposed to being a genuine main contender.
Spain certainly look as if they are going to be able to mount a challenge as they have world-class goalkeeping in David de Gea, rock solid experience defence, their usual wealth of creativity in the middle of the Park and with Diego Costa upfront creating a very solid spine that the Red Fury have, the 2010 World Cup champions in many regards look the best option to upset the leading two of Brazil and Germany. Spain are 6/1 odds* (betting odds were taken on June 6th, 2018 at 2:49 a.m.) in 888Sport World Cup 2018 outright winner odds.
France certainly have the squad to pull things together to launch a challenge as well but they could have a tricky run through the knockout phases in just getting to the semi-finals. Argentina had their struggles through World Cup 2018 qualification and that is something which will have raised doubts about their ability to knock off the other main contenders in the running for the 2018 World Cup title. Then there is Belgium who are the most threatening of the teams outside of the big four. Belgium are stacked with world-class talent, and if anyone is going to cause a major upset and become the first time winner of the World Cup in the summer it should be the Red Devils.
888Sport World Cup outright winner odds*
Brazil 4/1
Germany 9/2
Spain 6/1
France 13/2
Argentina 9/1
Belgium 11/1
England 18/1
Portugal 27/1
Croatia 30/1
Uruguay 31/1
Columbia 40/1
Russia 40/1
Poland 70/1
Bar 100/1
Who nets the most goals and Russia 2018?
The World Cup top goalscorer market is such a hard one to predict. But at the leading names of the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar, Antoine Griezmann, Cristiano Ronaldo, Harry Kane, Edinson Cavani and the list goes on. How do you choose out of such world class strikers? Anything can happen of course in the World Cup top goalscorer market such as four years ago when Colombia’s James Rodriguez won the golden boot after playing just five games.
It may be worth narrowing the field a bit by considering the top players who are with the top nations, those teams who are more likely than others to win the tournament outright. The likes of Brazil and Germany, of course, are far more likely to play the full seven games at the World Cup 2018 than say Poland or Portugal are. The more games will give a player more chance to win the golden boot, but again it does not always pan out that way as we saw at Brazil 2014.
The leading options in the 888sport World Cup 2018 top goalscorer market are Lionel Messi and Neymar who are the joint 9/1 odds* (betting odds were taken on June 6th, 2018 at 2:49 a.m.) favourites to top score. That is some prolific scoring power just between those two but when you break it down it is more realistic to think that Brazil are going to score far more goals at the tournament than Argentina are going to do. You only have to look at the CONMEBOL qualification for the 2018 World Cup for evidence of that where Brazil heavily outscored Argentina and in fact, Argentina were the lowest scorers of the five teams coming from the Confederation that are taking part at Russia 2018.
So now if you are looking for a top striker in a more attack-minded team who could potentially win the World Cup, Neymar may have more appeal. Similarly, Antoine Griezmann is leading powerful French attack and he could be well in among the goals at Russia 2018 with France being a contender as well. It probably carries more appeal than Cristiano Ronaldo who is part of a more conservative and cautious Portugal set up. Then you have other options looking at things from a different point of view, where Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku could get plenty of chances in an easy group stage to run up a few goals.
888Sport World Cup 2018 top goalscorer odds*
Lionel Messi 9/1
Neymar 9/1
Antoine Griezmann 11/1
Cristiano Ronaldo 14/1
Gabriel Jesus 14/1
Harry Kane 16/1
Timo Werner 16/1
Romelu Lukaku 18/1
Luis Suarez 22/1
Diego Costa 22/1
Edinson Cavani 25/1
Sergio Aguero 28/1
Gonzalo Higuain 30/1
Thomas Muller 33/1
Kylian Mbappe 35/1
Radamel Falcao 35/1
Eden Hazard 40/1
Olivier Giroud 40/1
Bar 50/1
* (betting odds were taken on June 6th, 2018 at 2:49 a.m.)
So there should be an interesting race ahead in the World Cup 2018 top goalscorer charts and the average amount of goals needed to win the Golden Boot over the last 10 editions of the tournament is six goals. Eight of the last 10 winners of the Golden Boot each played seven games at the tournament the year that they won it, however, the last two winners which have been Thomas Muller and James Rodriguez, neither played the full seven games to win the Golden Boot. Muller got it done in six games and Rodriguez did it in five.
Other World Cup betting options
So is worth and it is always nice, to look around at a variety of World Cup betting options. The reason for that is that sometimes you may not quite find the value that you want, in terms of risk and reward, in the major markets. So by expanding your World Cup 2018 betting horizons by looking at other options such as group stage betting where you can use your powers of prediction on things like forecasts and tricasts may offer you good alternative options.
You can also back teams to have success at the tournament without needing to win the tournament outright. You can do this by backing teams in the stage of elimination market at 888sport where for example you could back the strong dark course challenger of Belgium to make their bow at the quarter-final stage for 3/1 odds* (betting odds were taken on June 6th, 2018 at 2:49 a.m.) is that is a point where they would likely face either Brazil or Germany.
You will also be able to look at plenty of live betting markets in the individual matches, of which there will be 64 played at the tournament. This opens up great new opportunities and exciting ones at that for your World Cup 2018 betting. So you don’t just have to settle on the World Cup outright market and the World Cup top goalscorer market, go shopping around and see what other types of bets, be it which of the eight groups are going to produce the most goals, to individual awards like the Golden Ball and the Golden Gloves and who will be the top side of a given continent.
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