England’s Harry Kane leads the way in the race for the World Cup 2018 Golden Boot after firing off five goals in his first two games. He was rested for England’s final group stage match against Belgium, so will that lack of a run out hinder him in the long run in trying to get the top goalscorer prize at Russia 2018? It is very competitive with Romelu Lukaku and Christian Ronaldo both starting the second round of action with four goals to their name.
Harry Kane is now the 7/4 outright favourite* (betting odds taken from June 29th, 2018 at 5:12 pm) not only because of the goals that he has put on the board already but because of the draw that lies await for the Three Lions. Kane could eventually get more games than he had anticipated ahead of the tournament. Because England boss Gareth Southgate rested him in their final group game, the manager is clearly thinking that too. England have landed themselves in the easier bottom half of the draw, raising the potential of more games for Kane ahead.
Still, he probably would have been a bit unhappy not to have put in a shift against Belgium, but maybe that will fire him up for big things in the knockout stage. So who is the biggest threat to Kane that we can see in World Cup 2018 Golden Boot predictions? We can see the looming presence of Romelu Lukaku who is spearheading a free-scoring Belgium assault at the World Cup. Lukaku got his four goals in two games as he took a break in the final group stage match. Belgium overall are more of an offensive threat than England and the huge benefit that Lukaku has, is that he has Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne feeding him balls on a platter.
But then while Belgium have the easier round of sixteen tie against Japan while England duel with Colombia, the Red Devils could crash into Brazil in the quarter-finals, so will Lukaku, who did pick up a knock in Belgium’s second game at this tournament, get limited time? While we are not expecting Cristiano Ronaldo to progress too far in this knockout stage with Portugal we are going to look a little deeper in the field of some extra value.
World Cup Top Goalscorer standings ahead of Round of 16
5 Goals – Harry Kane
4 Goals – Romelu Lukaku
Cristiano Ronaldo
3 Goals – Denis Cheryshev
Diego Costa
2 Goals – Eden Hazard
Philipe Coutinho
John Stones
Andreas Grangquvist
Luis Surez
Artem Dzyuba
Luka Modric
Yerry Mina
* (betting odds taken from June 29th, 2018 at 5:12 p.m.)
Diego Costa is at 7/1 odds* (betting odds taken from June 29th, 2018 at 5:12 p.m.) in the World Cup 2018 golden ball betting and he has to be worth a look at that price. Costa has three goals and he is leading the line for Spain. Because of the draw that Spain have ahead of them, they are actually now the favourites in the bet365 To Reach Final market and are at 4/1 second favourites behind Brazil in the World Cup outright winner market* (betting odds taken from June 29th, 2018 at 5:12 p.m.). So Costa has a good chance of playing the full seven games at this edition of the World Cup and that could easily see him close the gap.
So there is the summary of the 2018 World Cup Golden Boot and there has been no mention of Lionel Messi, Antoine Greizmann or Neymar. They only have one goal each to their name and are going to have a very hard time in playing catch up now in the knockout phase alone. The maximum a team can now play from here is four more games. So it would need something extraordinary here on out and given that Messi is the star of a very poor Argentina team he’s not likely to reach the final. Brazil have a better chance, but Neymar clearly isn’t running at 100% after his injury. As for Griezmann, he has just failed to get going with only a penalty to his name so far.
World Cup Top Goalscorer Odds*
Harry Kane 7/4
Romelu Luikaku 9/2
Cristiano Ronaldo 5/1
Diego Costa 7/1
Neymar 25/1
Lionel Messi 25/1
Luis Suarez 33/1
Philippe Coutinho 33/1
Eden Hazard 33/1
Denis Cheryshev 50/1
Kylian Mbappe 66/1
Sergio Aguero 66/1
Antoine Griezmann 66/1
bar 100/1
* (betting odds taken from June 29th, 2018 at 5:12 p.m.)
World Cup 2018 Golden Boot Predictions
Kane is a very strong front-runner here because the average tally of goals to the win the Golden Boot over the last ten editions of the World Cup is six. So he’s just one away from that but there is potential for so much more because of the draw. He has to be well worth a flutter in the Golden Boot market at bet365* (betting odds taken from June 29th, 2018 at 5:12 p.m.). Our tip in the World Cup 2018 top goalscorer market has to be Diego Costa as he looks as if he can drive Spain pretty close to the title.
