bwin Sportsblog - Football - And then there were three

It's a shame that I stopped my betting sequences at this World Cup after the 48 games of the group stages because my predictions have gone very well so far in the knock out stages. I predicted 6/8 in the second round and 2/4 in the quarter-finals and last nights first semi-final between Holland and Uruguay and so my record for the knockout stages so far is an impressive 9/13. Even at short odds then this would have added nicely to the betting bank. The remaining games are going to be difficult to call but I think that Germany may edge Spain tonight. I think that Joachim Loew is a very clever tactician and I expect him to have a plan to combat the offensive capability of Spain. Spain did not look convincing against Portugal and Paraguay but having said that neither have the Dutch and they are in the final. If Spain beat Germany tonight in Durban then it will guarantee a new name on the trophy as neither of the finalists would have been World Champions before. I did predict before the semi-final stages that I thought it would be a repeat of the 1974 World Cup final between Holland and Germany. As always though with World Cups, there are teams who under perform and teams that go beyond what was expected. England, France and Italy fall into the under performers category. But in Brazil, they always under perform every time they fail to win it :-) I also think teams like Serbia will be disappointed as well and I expected more from them after their very successful qualifying campaign. Despite drawing with Brazil and winning 7-0 and only conceding one goal, Portugal will be feeling bad about only reaching the last 16. It was unfortunate for them to be paired in with Brazil and then the second placed team in that group to face the winners of the group that included Spain.