Spain’s chances at the World Cup 2018
After winning their first World Cup in 2014, Spain’s title defence four years later in Brazil crashed heavily as they didn’t make it out of the group stage. After opening with back-to-back defeats against the Netherlands and Chile, the reigning champions had to pack their bags early. But now four years on from that disaster, Spain look as if they are back and ready to launch a new assault on the World Cup title.
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After a successful qualification campaign and not having lost a game since getting knocked out of Euro 2006, right through to the international friendlies in March 2018, Spain will be turning up in Russia in the summer as one of the big threats in the tournament. While most of the focus is on Germany, Brazil and France leading to the 2018 World Cup can Spain sneak through the pack and land a second title?
Visit Bet365Spain World Cup 2018 Fixtures – Group Stage
Spain were drawn in Group B at the 2018 World Cup and they get an interesting clash against their Iberian neighbours Portugal. That will be the big showdown in the group and excitingly the two will meet in the first round of matches on June 15. The winner of that one will probably march on and win the group, so it is fair to say that that is an early group decider in Group B. Spain are 5/6 odds favourites to win* (betting odds taken on May 18th, 2018 at 4:33 p.m.) the opening game against Portugal who may well be the current European champions, but they are only 18/5 to get an opening victory.
The last time that Portugal and Spain met was in Euro 2000 when they played out a 0-0 draw, with Spain going through by winning a penalty shootout. Eight years ago at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Spain collected a 1-0 win over the neighbours. In the last five meetings between them, both competitive and friendly things are even with two wins each and a draw (90 min). Overall in the head-to-head between Spain and Portugal, the Spaniards are 16-6 ahead with 13 drawn matches.
Making up the rest of the group are Morocco and Iran and so the two European nations in the group shouldn’t have too much problem finding their way through to the next round of the tournament. Spain will face Iran in the second group stage match on Wednesday the 20th before closing out against Morocco on 25 June. Not surprisingly Spain are favourites to win all three of their matches in the group stage and basically, it is just going to be all about them getting off to a strong start against the Portuguese. A win there will be putting them in a position of being able to rest players a little bit towards the end of the group. Spain have never met either Morocco or Iran before.
Spain Stage of Elimination
It would be even more of a surprise if Spain didn’t get out of this group than it was four years ago when they failed. While they will have a test against Portugal they should have no trouble finding a way past the other two members of their group. So it is highly unlikely that they will fall at the first stage and looking ahead to the round of 16 they will face a team from Group A. That group contains Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Uruguay. Basically, if they can avoid Uruguay in that round, Spain should have comfortable passage through to the quarter-finals where things could become a little bit trickier as potential opponents could be either Argentina or Croatia.
If the Spaniards were to get through that the more likely than not in the semi finals they would be squaring off in a game against the current world champions Germany. There is no particular easy path for Spain in the knockout part of the competition. Spain are 11/4 odds* (betting odds taken on May 18th, 2018 at 4:33 p.m.) to go home at the semi final stage and are 7/2 odds* (betting odds taken on May 18th, 2018 at 4:33 p.m.) to bow out in the quarter-finals.
Spain Top Goalscorer
Spain have little more about them going for them they did four years ago as they can call on the likes of Alvaro Morata, Diego Costa and Isco. So they have quality attacking players in the squad and it is Chelsea’s Morata who is 2/1 favourite* (betting odds taken on May 18th, 2018 at 4:33 p.m.) to finish the tournament as Spain’s top goalscorer.
Outright Odds* for the World Cup 2018
Brazil 4/1, Germany 9/2, Spain 6/1, France 13/2, Argentina 9/1, Belgium 11/1, England 18/1, Portugal 25/1, Uruguay 33/1, Croatia 33/1, bar 40/1* (Betting Odds taken at 5:27 p.m. on May 16th, 2018)
Predictions
Spain are going to have to work hard for their spoils at the 2018 World Cup because there could well be a tough knockout run of games for them. However, they have improved drastically since 2014 and they have plenty of the old guard like Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique still at the core of the team. The difference now is that they have a good blend of young players like Marco Asensio and Koke to accent them.
Given the current status and how good that they have looked over the last year or so we can project is being through to the final four. But it won’t be without some stern challenges along the way and a 9/2 odds semi-final stage of elimination* (betting odds taken on May 18th, 2018 at 4:33 p.m.) bet looks around the right mark.
