As a purple-nosed man from Glasgow once said ‘It’s squeaky bum time’ and there are a lot of bums squeaking in Brazil as the tournament enters the semi-final stage.
Okay, the goals may have dried up a bit and the action, not as frenetic as it has been, but it’s still a fascinating tournament and we are left with four giants of world football fighting it out for the greatest prize the game has to offer.
Brazil v Germany
Belo Horizonte is the venue for this clash of the titans. Two superpowers of world football come face-to-face in what looks like it could be an absolute classic. Brazil, with the weight of a nation’s expectation on their shoulders, and now shorn of arguably their two most influential players, Thiago Silva and Neymar, come up against the well-oiled machine that is Germany.
The two teams cannot be separated in the market and both are at 9/5 for the win and if you fancy the draw after 90 mins, the price on offer is 21/10. The two countries met in the 2002 World Cup Final and Brazil won out that day on a scoreline of 2-0. For them to repeat that result, you can get odds of 12/1. Despite Brazil losing the services of their talisman and their captain we still feel they’ll be immensely difficult to beat over 90 mins and the draw for us looks the best option at 21/10.
Argentina v Netherlands
Another clash between South America and Europe, this one taking place in Sao Paulo. The Messi-inspired Argentina are up against the Dutch who needed Tim Krul to see off the challenge of Costa Rica in a penalty shoot-out in the previous round. Again, this is another tight one to call and it’ll take a brave man to predict the outcome here.
Argentina are favourites to win over 90 minutes at 7/5 whereas if you fancy Louis van Gaal to pull off another tactical master-stroke to see the Dutch through, you can get them at a generous looking 23/10. The draw here is available at 21/10. Both sides have goals in them and we fancy the look of a 1-1 draw after 90 minutes at 5/1
